


Future Heroes Book 1

by DarkImpetus, Distant_Worlds_Tempus_Finis



Category: Fantastic Four, Marvel (Comics), Monsters Unleashed (Marvel), Nova (Comics), Power Pack, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types, X-Men - All Media Types
Genre: Action/Adventure, Alternate Universe, Gen, Post-Apocalypse, Superhero school
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-27
Updated: 2020-12-26
Packaged: 2021-03-10 23:21:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 13
Words: 33,664
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28341558
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DarkImpetus/pseuds/DarkImpetus, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Distant_Worlds_Tempus_Finis/pseuds/Distant_Worlds_Tempus_Finis
Summary: 30 years after a tragedy in 1996 (coinciding with the Great Comics Crash in the real world), Earth has managed to stabilize into a fragile existence. To ensure the survival of Earth, the superheroes work with SHIELD to create a new generation of heroes to protect Earth from not only villains but threats from other worlds and dimensions.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 5





	1. Beginnings

**Author's Note:**

> Ciao! It's Distant_Worlds_Tempus_Finis or Ghost. 
> 
> Hola! It's DarkImpetus or ... DarkImpetus. 
> 
> Welcome to our brainchild, Future Heroes. 
> 
> DarkImpetus: I tried to write some future fics or next gen fics when I was younger. They sucked. I then got together with Ghost to make something better.
> 
> Ghost: No kidding. This is way better than the crap you made years ago.
> 
> DarkImpetus: This is much, much better. We did take some inspiration from 616, 1610, and the MCU. Some other universes are also thrown in and referenced. Now sit back and enjoy the show.

# Arc 1 | A New Dawn

Earth has weathered many events: Galactus, the Gathering of the Infinity Stones, beings from other dimensions, and alien encounter after alien encounter. All of them pale in comparison to the Great Scourge. The Great Scourge is when Earth’s heroes truly lost. 

The year was 1996. The Avengers were in their prime. They had truly established themselves as a formidable force. In the previous year, they had already defeated Thanos and secured the destruction of the Infinity Gauntlet. They were seemingly invincible.

There were indeed other heroes present. The X-Men had recently formed around the time of the Gathering of the Infinity Stones. These teenage mutants had managed to win favor in a world which hated and feared them while still dealing with their regular school work. 

The Baxter Foundation had its own heroes, the Fantastic Four. The Baxter Foundation was a powerful think tank with the smartest students within its halls. With great power came great enemies, so the Fantastic Four, the ones who gained powers by stealing an experimental rocket, were put to the task of defending against the enemies. Also, they had someone smart enough to fight Victor von Doom.

There were also street heroes at the time. Spider-Man was just a regular high school student who partook in web slinging whenever he had free time.

Threats rose and fell, but none of them truly broke the Earth. The Great Scourge would overshadow all of them.

This day in 1996 was seemingly an ordinary day. No one thought much of it. Then the Great Scourge began. Mysterious obsidian vines appeared all over the world. Birnin Zana, New York, Bombay, Shanghai, Tokyo, Paris, and many more observed these roots. It wasn’t long until monsters appeared. These monsters gathered in darkness, all possessing glowing yellow eyes. Thousands became millions, millions became trillions, and all light soon disappeared. The Avengers, once a shining beacon of hope, were hopeless to stop the chaos from spreading. 

The last resort was a full evacuation of Earth to Counter-Earth. The evacuation was hasty and resources were scarce since the darkness had infected so many. In addition, many people themselves were being corrupted by the darkness, a scourge upon humanity. The evacuation was spearheaded by Dr. Strange who managed to evacuate billions of people in one of the largest logistical undertakings in history. 

To prevent the scourge from spreading, sorcerers had pooled together their magics to seal the planet one final time. Earth is not Earth. It had become a desolate graveyard, a wasteland. Counter-Earth was renamed Earth to maintain familiarity, but people had much greater concerns about their new living conditions besides the name. 

Soon after, a semblance of stability returned to the world. 

In New York City, the public transport system was upgraded from its counterpart in the Wasteland. The train conductors would apologize for the grave offense of being ten seconds late. Every clock was synced to an atomic clock as to prevent the slightest chance of being late.

It was noon time. May had just arrived. The kids were finally let out of school. Among the kids on the train was Franklin Richards. People wouldn’t give much of a second thought about the boy. There were already enough boys who were short, had blonde hair, blue eyes, and wore an elementary school uniform. Elementary school uniforms in America consisted of a polo shirt with the school’s color, maroon in this case, khaki shorts, and white socks. 

Franklin laced up his blue and black sneakers. He pulled out his phone and pulled up the stopwatch. Walking out of the subway, Franklin turned on the stopwatch. _Here it goes._ He took off for Four Freedoms Plaza as quickly as he could. ‘Richards’ was a common surname, but his surname was famous. He was the son of Mr. Fantastic and the Invisible Woman of the Fantastic Four. His home was also home to another think tank similar to the Baxter Foundation, the Future Foundation.

“You’ve gotta be kidding me,” he wheezed. He held his side as he saw a crowd. In a world of superheroes, fighting in the street became more of a common occurrence. Crowds watched as heroes fought villains. 

Franklin was about to collapse. It’s not that he was unathletic. His lungs were in acute pain. It was like shattered glass cut the sides as he inhaled and exhaled. The boy could at least be relieved by the entertainment he got from watching … Cole Wittman rob a jewelry store. Cole Wittman was the daughter of Bentley Wittman, the supervillain known as the Wizard. Needless to say, Franklin rolled his eyes at seeing her wear the armor of her father who was sitting in a jail cell. The pink and blue armor with the beehive helmet would be stupid if it wasn’t for the gadgets in it.

“Freeze, villain.” Franklin’s eyes perked up like the ears of a happy puppy. _No, that can’t be._ _It is!_ “Don’t you know robbing a jewelry store is illegal?”

“Well duh,” Cole scoffed, “Do you think I wear this armor for fun?”

“Well, I’ll take that as a confession,” said Ms. Marvel. 

“Wow, that’s Ms. Marvel,” Franklin said, “What’s she doing here from Jersey?”

“She’s probably trying to get in with the big leagues,” said a boy around Franklin’s age. He clearly wasn’t in school because he lacked a uniform. Then again, Ms. Marvel was obviously a teen hero herself. Maybe people just changed fast? “Hm, you’re a fan of heroes, right?”

“Well, uh, I guess you can say that.” As much as Franklin wanted to say ‘ _Fan? Of course, I’ve grown up around all of them.’_ he knew he couldn’t since he wasn’t allowed to give away his affiliation with his parents. If he was caught at Four Freedoms Plaza, he could easily say he was going to his dad’s workplace. It wasn’t technically a lie. 

Franklin’s eyes, however, were fixated on the battle in the streets. 

“Embiggen!” An enlarged foot struck Cole who bounced across the asphalt. Cole got up. Between her fingers were marble bombs. 

“Can’t hit me that easily!” Ms. Marvel merely contorted her body to avoid the bombs like she was a character in an old rubber hose cartoon. She then swung directly for Cole’s head and landed a direct hit.

“Exactly what I wanted.” A scorpion drone crawled the length of Ms. Marvel’s arm and then planted its stinger down despite Ms. Marvel trying to shake it off. “Have fun in space where your fluids boil right off of you as radiation bakes you alive!”

“Hey lady,” Ms. Marvel said, “I have two arms.” Her free arm was anchored on a fire hydrant. Using her enlarged arm to pull it, she unleashed a torrent of water onto Cole who was rendered a convulsing mess on the ground as electricity coursed through her body.

The probe stopped glowing, and Ms. Marvel fell to the ground. Ozone filled the air.

“Ha! Serves her right,” said the boy.

“Yeah, not too bad for a New York debut,” said Franklin, “What’s your name?”

“It’s Clove,” said the boy.

“Franklin,” Franklin replied, “You a fan of heroes?” 

“I guess you could say that,” said Clove, “I’m a fan of the obscure heroes. Mainline heroes, not so much.”

“Yeah, mainline heroes get a ton of exposure,” Franklin said, “Obscure ones are fun to learn about.” Of course, it’s hard to outright fanboy over superheroes you personally know or are work acquaintances with your own family. 

“That’s good to hear,” said Clove, “You plan on being a hero?”

Franklin laughed at this statement. Clove stared at him a bit long-faced. “You were serious?”

“I mean, you heard about Project Foresight, right?” said Clove. Franklin shook his head. “Oh right, you were in school. Well, the mainstream heroes got out and are starting a program with SHIELD to make a new generation of heroes. Aren’t you going to sign up and try to get in?”

“I … maybe? It’s just that my lungs … I can’t.”

“Oh, well I’m sure medical technology will help you. I heard a blind guy in Hell’s Kitchen cleaned out a ton of crime there. It’s all over the news that tons of new heroes are popping up,” said Clove, “Just keep working on it, hero, and you’ll make it like them. I know you’ll be a great hero with that spirit.”

Franklin was shaking, and it wasn’t from fear. Someone actually said he could be a hero. Unfortunately, Franklin couldn’t say anything. The police charged the lines.

“Alright, break it up, people, we have another criminal to take in,” said the police. 

The crowd disperses upon order. Franklin then started heading home. 

Four Freedoms Plaza is a vibrant place. 100 of the smartest kids on Earth lived in its halls and provided scientific research for the whole world. Still, it was around noon time when the last day of school let out, so most workers were out to lunch. The Future Foundation tended to forego lunch and lock themselves in their labs. Franklin was free to simply go up and deal with a mostly quiet building. On the thirtieth floor was the apartment for the Fantastic Four. As expected, the halls were dark and empty.

Kicking off his shoes, Franklin ran into the apartment and headed for his room. 

His room was honestly nothing to write home about. It was rather basic with a bookshelf, desk, and bed. Honestly, his walk in closet is less boring than his room. Grabbing a book off the shelf, Franklin opened it. It was a sketchbook, a seventh volume if the cover is any indication, of his analysis. Grabbing a pencil, Franklin started drawing. 

His drawing of the battle was not like a comic book. Instead, he drew precise wooden puppet figures locked into combat like a book which guides students on katas before the days of the internet. Each move was one he recounted from memory. _Really wish I recorded this with my phone._ He looked up at the clock. _Wow, almost dinner time._

He rolled his chair back and looked at the mess of graphite all over his hands. Getting up out of the chair, he headed towards the bathroom. He did his best to remove it from his hands. After getting most of it out, he grabbed his sketchbook and headed for the dinner table. 

For the most part, the apartment would be empty. Franklin took advantage of to hone his cooking skills. Obviously, he didn’t think he was that good since he was the only one eating it. He decided to have breakfast for dinner. Specifically, he chose to make the Middle Eastern dish called shakshuka.

He kept the bowl and sketchbook relatively far from each other as he worked on fixing some linework and perspective of the fight.

His blood grew cold at the sound of the door opening. _Oh no, it’s her!_ He did the only thing he could do: drop his spoon on the floor and throw his sketchbook off. He hoped the clanging of the spoon would mask the sound of paper.

Franklin had taken measures to avoid his younger sister of two years at all costs. When he wakes up in the morning, he deliberately sets his alarm at a time she wouldn’t be up. Did this annoy his parents? Yes. Did this ensure he wouldn’t see her? Yes. 

He also entered the Four Freedoms Plaza in ways to avoid the Future Foundation as well. Specifically, he entered it in a time where the kids would be neck deep in their experiments. Having twelve different reactions run at once is obviously a perfect time since the FF members needed to pay attention and prevent lab accidents.

Valeria walked into the room and set down her sandwich in a bag. She didn’t particularly take pleasure in eating like her brother. However, she did notice something in his hand before taking the first bite. 

“What is that,” she demanded like she was entitled to everything in Four Freedoms Plaza.

“It’s -- Hey! Give that back --” In one hand was Franklin’s sketchbook. In the other was a flash of green light. The glass table shattered as Franklin found himself on the floor. Valeria began flipping through the sketchbook before slamming it shut.

“There are two kinds of people: those who have power and those who dream of it. You are a dreamer, and dreamers like you are a waste of space. I don’t know why Mom and Dad keep you at all. Do you really think you can be some hero? A frail, mentally retarded waste of space like you would only get yourself killed. Do you know how much that would damage my image? To be related to you… ” From the windows, Valeria’s hand glowed bright green once more before she closed her fist. “No, that would ruin my reputation. Get out of my sight, useless.”

Franklin really had no choice except to scurry out of there without his sketchbook. He didn’t know what Valeria did to it. He just knew he had to go to his room. From there, Franklin locked himself. The hours ticked by before he could leave for the Xavier Institute for the summer. The Future Foundation always made annual trips to their Mars holdings, so he simply spent his summers with the X-Men. 

“That stupid jerk,” Franklin chocked as he looked down at his other sketchbooks. He was on his phone, scrolling through the Project Foresight webpage to distract himself. 

He wanted to strike back, he really did, and be his own hero. He couldn’t. What kind of hero couldn’t defend himself? He remembered what he’s always been told when it came to the Future Foundation hurting him: _You need to realize that there are things much bigger than you._

Yes, much bigger than him. It didn’t matter who they hurt just so long as they were the geniuses in the Future Foundation. It’s not like evil geniuses didn’t exist. No, what is different between these child geniuses and evil geniuses is that his parents would let these Future Foundation members get away with anything so long as it brought prestige and not controversy to the Fantastic Four.

 _I’m sure Mom and Dad would make a child to replace Val in a test tube before trusting me._ He grabbed his sketchbooks, all six of them which he still had. He looked over to his shelf and looked over to his summer duffel bag. He grabbed the rest. Then he thought back to Clove’s words. _Just keep working on it, hero._

Violet light shined right outside of the door to the apartment as Franklin grabbed his duffel bag and ran for it. This was one of Blink’s portals.

The Xavier Institute was nice at sunset. Franklin was just in front of the gates. Greeting him was a familiar girl. It was the same red hair and green eyes he had always known. This is Rachel Summers.

“Hi Ruby.” 

“Hi Franklin.”

“Race you back to the dorms!”

* * *

The Live and Learn Center is the residence hall. It is divided into two sections. The Northside is for students who are runaways, orphans, were grown in a lab, or from alternate universes/bad futures. The bottom floor is a common area with kitchens, lounges, and showers. Then the dorms start. The Southside is where the families live where rooms more closely resemble hotel rooms. Turns out, not every family is so anti-mutant that they abandon their kids. Some are forced to live with them except in smaller spaces.

Franklin and Rachel had raced towards the sixth floor. It was called the penthouse. Objectively, it was the best room in the entire building with two bathrooms, four bedrooms, a living room, a laundry room, a linen closet, an office, and a kitchen. The problem is how small it is.

Yes, the penthouse is too small. 

Not every house is built for the family living in it. In this case, the Summers family found it too small.

Franklin was currently collapsed on Rachel’s bed. His lungs had the scraping sensation they were used to in addition to another burning sensation. Rachel was at his side with a bottle of water. 

“You know we can’t race like we used to,” Rachel said.

“I know,” Franklin huffed as he sat up. He took the water and drank it. “I just thought … I could.”

Rachel began to scowl. “What did she say?”

“Nothing. Val --”

“Is a total bitch and sorry excuse for a human being.”

“Ruby!”

“Hey, you know she is one.” 

Franklin sighed. “It’s just … Do you think I can be a hero?”

“Where did this come from?” She saw the bandages covering his arm. Whatever happened, it was much worse than Valeria’s normal firing level.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ghost's Notes  
> \- Dark and I mulled over the nature of the Great Scourge for a while. It took some time for us to get our vision down. Ultimately, our inspiration came from the World of Ruin from Final Fantasy VI, World of Darkness from FFXV, and the Realm of Darkness from Kingdom Hearts.  
> \- One of the details I hope to incorporate later is the extent of the damage the Great Scourge caused. I actually have a backstory written on actual paper ... which I'll need to find. It deals with what happened to the world after the evacuation. You don't evacuate billions and expect nothing to hit the fan.
> 
> DarkImpetus's Notes  
> \- Franklin was not the original protagonist. An OC was the original protagonist. Franklin was supposed to be a villain because of my dislike of Dan Slott's Franklin or Mutantface Manny as I now called him. I stopped because as you can see I didn't want to vilify the entire Fantastic Four that much. I'm taking cues from 1610, an FF incarnation I don't like already. I didn't want to make them look so horrific.  
> \- The design of the redesigned X-Mansion is actually a kitbash of multiple colleges.


	2. A Hero

_ “Race you to the Spot!” The redhead swept her hair out of her face. She ran, the wind her face. She always took some time to look back to see Franklin who would normally be by her side. This time, he was far behind her. He was on the ground, panting heavily. “Franklin? What’s wrong?” _

The memory of Franklin collapsing because of his unknown condition was in her mind. They used to have fun as children, but those days were long over. Franklin didn’t remember why he got so weak, but he certainly had been improving over the years.

Still, when she saw Franklin, she knew he wasn’t the same. He was not ready for the life of a hero her parents lived.

She knew Franklin was a fan of heroes. After all, the kid grew up around them, even was babysat by various heroes (none of them, for some reason, want to talk about their endeavors under any circumstances, probably relating to Valeria). Still, Rachel was shocked this question came up. He knew his condition. Why would he want to be a hero? 

Then she saw the fresh scratches on his arm. It looks like the hours sealed them up, but they were certainly new. Her eyes were also towards his partially opened bag. She saw the sketchbooks. It was normal for him to bring one, but bringing all of them was something else.

_ Come on, Rachel, just let him down nicely.  _ “Franklin, I think … ” His eyes were watery.  _ Forgive me.  _ “I think you can’t be a hero. Heroes need to fight long battles. You’re great, but you can’t, not with your lungs.”

“You’re right. I … I’ve just been kidding myself this entire time.”  _ Don’t cry, useless. You knew deep down that you were never going to be a hero. Your own parents couldn’t heal you. Angel’s blood couldn’t heal you. Nothing will make you normal. Nothing can make you normal. You were just trying so hard to prove yourself wrong. Now, put on a brave face and suck it up. _

Rachel couldn’t read minds. Telepathy was always a problem for her. She had the power, but her brain wasn’t wired for it. Yet she could hear every one of his thoughts clear as day. One thought rang through her head:  _ What have I done? _

“Well,” Franklin said. Rachel had to blink three or four times. His tone changed so much. He pulled something out of his duffel bag. He certainly wasn’t as powerless as he was led to believe, but it took a good deal of time for the object to get to his hand. “Want to watch something? Maggie gave me this.”

Rachel turned it over and saw a stamp with a Multiverse Designation Number on it. The Future Foundation also studies alternate universes. This is an item from one of them. “She just gave you DVDs from an alternate universe?”

“Well, I did win a bet,” Franklin said, “Now, let’s start watching!”

* * *

At the Xavier Institute, not everyone was happy about their living conditions. Some were from loving homes who fled anti-mutant mobs with their children. Others were different and had parents who were the anti-mutant mobs. This created a schism between the two major parts of the school’s student body.

Quentin Quire walked into his dorm with members of his Omega Gang not far behind. He reached into his pillow and grabbed a box. In it were a bunch of vape pens filled with the drug known as kick.

Hypercortizone D was not illegal by any means. It was used in medicine to stabilize mutant powers. When used on powers not in flux, it causes a spike in powers and makes the user feel invincible.

“We’re going to need this in the morning,” said Quentin, “We’re never going to face the X-Men down in a straight fight, so we’ll hold their precious school hostage. They can never go all out on us here anyways because of the students. They definitely won’t go all out when we use mutant shields. The X-Men will be disgraced when they let us walk out of here and start our revolution against the humans with some of their own students willing to join our side. Mutants on top, humans on the bottom.”

“Do you really think the mutants with human parents here will just betray them,” Glob pointed out in his one instance of intellect.

“Acceptable casualties,” said Quentin, “Now, who wants to be the first to grab?”

“Me first” Glob said. It took one huff for Glob to feel euphoric.  _ I feel so alive. _

* * *

“Of course we’re late,” Rachel shouted behind her, “I’ll save you a spot.”

_ Another reminder that you’re weak and worthless. It’ll be fine. Just let it go. _

This is what happens when you wake up late on a Saturday morning at the Xavier Institute. Good thing there was still food.

“Hey Rachel!” A girl waved at the pair as they passed by a table. Rachel and Franklin walked over to the table and set down their plates.

“Hey Hisako, you’re up early,” said Rachel.

“I was just as surprised as you,” said a sandy blonde boy. Franklin was rather awkwardly silent and was shaking quite a bit.

“Oh, Franklin, you haven’t met them yet.” Franklin stopped looking like he was staring at a two headed fish once she said this. “The girl who gets up late is Hisako.”

“Hi,” she fake yawned.

“The girl who isn’t talking is Laurie,” said Rachel.

“Hi,” Laurie whispered as softly as humanly possible. Franklin barely registered hearing her among the sounds in the dining hall.

“The other boy here is Josh.”

“Sup.”

“Rachel’s talked about you a lot,” said Hisako, “Have any powers?”

“Err, not really.” Franklin was able to demonstrate his weak telekinesis. He could barely make a fork float from the table to him.

“So it’s a weaker form of Rachel’s power? Ow!” Josh rubbed the back of his head. Hisako had shown off her power. She could create an aura around her to make an armor. Franklin didn’t see whether it could cover her entire body or not.

“How come we’ve never met,” Franklin asked.

“Oh, uh, funny thing. Mutant powers activate around our age, so yeah, we’re all pretty new here,” said Hisako.

“Did you hear? The age where mutant powers are appearing is getting younger,” said Rachel.

“That’s because of the big disaster that happened thirty years ago,” Hisako said.

“Let me guess where you’re from,” said Franklin abruptly, “So Josh sounds like he’s from right here in Salem.”

“Right,” said Josh.

“Hisako grew up in Tokyo,” said Franklin.

“Where exactly in Tokyo?” Hisako sported a massive grin because she knew he would never --

“Hiroo.” Then her face sank.

“Wow … you’re good.”

“It’s all in the accent,” said Rachel.

“Nice,” said Josh, “Can you actually use those accents or is it just a recognizing thing?”

“I can try a posh accent. I make no guarantees.” He cleared his throat and opened his mouth.

What everyone failed to notice during the chaos of the morning was Glob walking in. Sure, a giant pink monster was a normal sight around the institute, but this morning was different. Glob didn’t eat that morning. Instead, he just stood by the door. 

Pustules appeared on Glob’s back, arms, chest, and face. Each of them burst to unleash more pink slime. These tendrils waved as more and more pustules appeared to increase Glob’s mass.

The room suddenly got darker.

Silence reigned for a single moment as everyone looked on in horror. One person screamed and forced everyone else to scream. 

Tentacles descended from Glob and ensnared several kids. It wasn’t much, but it was enough to force the remaining kids towards the wall. Others tripped and were soon captured by tendrils. 

“Look out!” Franklin flew into a table. The table broke beneath him. Rachel was face-to-face with Glob as she was soon absorbed into his central mass. Glob only laughed at his now shoggoth-like form. 

When Franklin opened his eyes, he saw Rachel with the waxy rope-like finger around her throat. His eyes were fixated solely on her. She unleashed a few bursts of telekinetic power. She was gasping for air as the slime resealed itself around her.

Two hundred mutants, many with powers that would be effective at fighting or outlasting Glob stood with their backs against the wall. Fire could instantly end this or some kind of hydrokinesis would surely free everyone. Not one moved.

_ The X-Men will be here soon. They’ll take care of this. A real hero will come soon. _ But Franklin’s body refused to move any further towards the wall. Instead, he raised his hand almost on instinct alone.  _ What? _

A chair leg flew into Franklin’s hands. 

Rachel saw Franklin charge. “What the hell are you doing? You’ll get killed!” Still, her voice was drowned out by Glob. 

It doesn’t matter what they say. Doesn’t matter if the whole world told him to give up. He’s not going to let Glob hurt anyone anymore. 

Glob merely laughed. “It’ll be your funeral.” The tips of the tendrils resembled crystals more than they did slime. Franklin dodged them, the tendrils piercing the ground instead.

More gooey, crystal-tipped spikes sprouted from Glob’s back, arms, and legs. Glob’s skeleton was in a crawling position. While it was elevated because of the extra mass, Franklin knows he can hurt him. The mass wasn’t around the face.

He just kept going. It didn’t matter how many Glob threw at him.

He didn’t count, but at least thirteen flew past him.

Glob promptly impaled him down the side. “Ha, what was that supposed to do?” Thinner tendrils continued to further impale Franklin through the sides. Thin needles hurt more and that’s why it was fun to mutilate the corpse of a boy whose eyes were losing their light.

Rachel watched the light fade from his eyes. Tears began to roll down her face and merge into the slime. _ It’s over. _ Except the light didn’t fade from his eyes. They flared back up. Franklin mustered up enough willpower to raise the broken chair leg and stab it right into Glob’s eye.

Glob screamed, “Damn you! Damn you!” Franklin kept pressing as the skull shattered into shards.

But then she saw a hand. Grabbing it, she could finally breathe. She saw Franklin bleed out all over the ground. “What are you doing? You’re hurt. You need help.”

“I can’t just let you die here.” 

Rachel paused for a moment. Unable to respond, she turned towards Glob. A spike came for the both of them. Rachel turned her hand and immediately displeased the slime.

“Damn you bastards!” 

Jean had arrived just outside the room. She didn’t intend to pull his heart. No, she was going to do something much worse. Despite having one functional eye, dread overcame Glob. She was going to tear out that entire monster’s skeleton.

What flew through the air was a human skeleton plus a cubic foot of waxy mass. It slammed right into the wall, the spine and ribs crunching in harmony with the wood, before sliding on the ground.

On the other side of the door, the Omega Gang watched as the pink mass collapsed with Glob holding it together.

Quentin choked, “I-impossible.” Quentin grabbed his throat as he floated in the air. Right now, he was face-to-face with Jean Grey.

“Listen up you filthy pieces of gutter trash,” Logan addressed the rest of the Omega Gang, “You are leaving the campus one way or another. You can leave in handcuffs or in body bags. Pick carefully.”

Hands flew into the air as knees struck the ground. It was a wise decision, too. The moment Jean found out what happened, Logan would gladly let her turn the Omega Gang’s flesh into leather gloves and boots. Scott would probably take the simpler route of just blasting them until their bones more closely resembled the texture of baby food.

Obviously, the Xavier Institute Infirmary was full that day.

Rachel was dismissed quickly, so she spent the rest of her day pacing in her room. She didn’t touch anything: not her games, not her manga, not her comics, and not even her sewing kit. When she was not pacing, she was staring at the ceiling on her bed. It would constantly be this cycle of pacing and staring into the ceiling as the colors of the room changed from morning yellow to the black of night.

When the door to her linen closet/room opened, she immediately hugged the person entering.

“I’m so glad you’re okay,” Rachel said.

“Yeah … Ruby … hugging too tight … ” Franklin wheezed.

“Sorry,” she said sheepishly as she let go, “How do you feel?”

“A bit better. My lungs feel so much lighter now. It feels so easy to breath. What is that Foley guy’s power?” said Franklin.

“He’s a really good healer,” said Rachel,”I’m glad you’re back.” Franklin couldn’t help but see sadness in her eyes. She almost tried to avoid direct eye contact. 

“It’s just that … I’m sorry,” Rachel sighed, “I told you you couldn’t be a hero with your lungs. When Glob attacked us, I was powerless to do anything. And there’s you who had multiple spikes in your chest and still took out his eye.”

“I didn’t really do much. Your mom did all the heavy lifting,” Franklin said.

“You were in a room with two hundred people. Not one of them bothered to do anything, including me,” Rachel explained, “But you … you were the only one who did anything.”

“P-please, no, I’m not … I’m no --” Franklin was crying. He recalled his sister’s words:  _ we need to live with the constant reminder of having a frail, mentally retarted waste of space still draining our lives would only get killed. _

“Yes, you, too, can be a hero.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ghost's Notes  
> \- Rachel is a year younger than Franklin because I really wanted to make a Stranger Things joke which got cut from the final chapter.  
> \- Franklin's nickname for Rachel has some minor backstory which we'll get into later.  
> \- Glob turning into Shoggoth was my idea. Originally, Dark had him turn into a giant, but I found slime monsters like Shoggoth to be more interesting.  
> \- I never understood why creators add so many eyes to creatures. Sure, it's unsettling, but eyes are easy to damage.
> 
> DarkImpetus's Notes  
> \- Hypercortizone D's nature is actually inspired by Fox's The Gifted rather than the comics.  
> \- Instead of using inhalers like the comics or needles like The Gifted, I went with vape pens because it's a bit more contemporary as of this writing.  
> \- The accent readings from Franklin are inspired by My Fair Lady/Pygmalion.  
> \- "you, too, can be a hero" was not the original line Ghost intended to use, but I changed it.  
> \- The design of Rachel's room was partially inspired by Lincoln Loud's linen closet of a room.


	3. The Ticking Clock

Franklin was crying. Rachel had a box labeled “emergency tissues” and handed it to him as a puddle of brine was all over the floor. Clearly, this was not his first crying fest here. She was patient to wait for him to lighten up on the brine.

“So Project Foresight, you know about it, right?” Rachel asked.

“Uh,” Franklin sniffed, “I skimmed. I just didn’t think --”

“Say no more,” Rachel said, “Here’s what it is. Project Foresight is something SHIELD and all the heroes cooked up. They don’t talk about what happened almost thirty years ago that much. They lost a lot of heroes. The world isn’t like they remember it. It’s less safe and more danger prone.”

“Also, having large swaths of land occupied by aliens for six months when we would beat them back in a week when the world isn’t crazy was not a good look,” Rachel sighed. Ah yes, the Earth-Spyre War was Earth’s least proud moment. Alien empires like the Kree and Skrull saw a no name isolationist government attack Earth and almost win as proof of Earth’s weakness. It was beyond sad. Had Earth not ultimately prevailed in the end, these empires would have carved out spheres of influences and protectorates.

“Right, so they want more heroes,” said Rachel, “A whole new generation of heroes for every single state. They need to test the waters and start out small. As in, they will make a camp in another dimension type of small.”

“How do you know this? That’s not on the website.” Franklin was scanning the website on his phone. Rachel merely lowered his phone and raised a few strands of her hair. “Oh right.”

“They’re making a dry run for a hero program. The intermediate and advanced classes are already decided from a pool of teen heroes. The beginner class is a free for all. So there’s going to be this big test. We’re going to take it,” said Rachel.

“What’s on the test?” said Franklin.

“I know there’s a written portion, but we’re supposed to ‘study while we’re there’,” said Rachel, “Crap, and then there’s the practical. I guess we’re fighting robots or holograms or something like that. We have until like next Memorial Day.”

“So we’ll be competing with a bunch of kids from all over the country for how many spots?” 

“Eighty.”

Franklin looked down at the floor. He closed his fists and looked up to her. “Then we better get started.”

The place Rachel envisioned for their training was a good deal outside of the Xavier property. Normally, she would be yelled at for this, but her parents knew about her superheroic ambitions, so they permitted her off the property. Of course, Rachel would swear that her parents had spies around her. They were standing in a clear area of the forest where the trees had been burned away by alien spaceships. The rain had forced the ash to mix with the water as expected.

“So brought us out here to fight,” Franklin concluded.

“Well yeah, you do have your telekinesis and telepathy. Let’s see how strong you are before we work on anything,” Rachel got into her fighting stance. 

“You’re on!” Franklin took his fighting stance.

Rachel immediately opened by lifting up some dirt and throwing it at Franklin who dodged it. She kept going. After dodging three dirt balls, Franklin was already gasping for air and getting tired.  _ Why? _ He thought  _ Why now? My lungs are okay. _

Of course, when the forth dirt shot was hurling towards him, Franklin had to either meet it head on or block it head on. He chose the latter. He curled his fist, fingers up, and attempted to raise the earth into the air as a wall. 

Except that’s not what happened. It froze.

A simultaneous exclamation of “What?” filled the air almost immediately.

“Did you know about this?” Rachel tapped the ice to see if it was real and not some weird mix of telepathic cloaking and telekinesis. Yes, it was certainly cold and melted a little when she touched it.

“Do I look like I do?” Franklin hyperventilated.

“Nice,” she said as she wiped the water on her dress, “You have ice powers. But, uh, how?”

“Could that near death experience with Glob have reactivated my x-factors?” said Franklin, “No, that can’t be. I wouldn’t be alive if it did.”

“I mean, does it matter where you got your powers? You got new powers. Let’s test them out. Hit me with everything you got!”

“You sure? I don’t want to hurt you,” said Franklin. 

“Come on, just imagine I’m your sister,” Rachel assured him. 

“Can you at least insult me and blast me around first?” 

“Franklin...”

“Fine.” He unleashed his strongest attack … a single spike of ice which didn’t even reach her. “What was that?” Rachel looked a bit disappointed at this.

“Maybe you need to develop your powers a bit more,” said Rachel, “Like, I couldn’t always float with mine.”

“Hm, you’re right. What if I just used ice blades for now and then got better later?” Franklin’s entire arm froze as a blade protruded over the fist. 

“That’s more like it,” Rachel said, “Now, let’s spar.”

* * *

One would imagine someone preparing for heroism to be punching bags in a gym or sparring in a dojo. Perhaps meditation under a waterfall, in the middle of a forest, or deep in a cave would be somewhere in that. Franklin and Rachel were sitting out in Rachel’s room with a pencil, paper, and phone. 

“That brings the kata count to twenty-six,” Rachel said.

“Don’t forget about sparing and weapons training with Laura. I don’t know how we’re going to do it,” said Franklin, “This summer is basically all we have together.”

“Your parents are never going to want to see you as a hero,” said Rachel, “How will you train at home?”

“I have an idea,” Franklin assured, “It’s a stupid one, but it’s too stupid for them to notice.”

“Oh, are you talking about that floor no one uses?”

“Exactly. Now, let’s get sparring.”

The days were long, but the list of available days was getting shorter. It didn’t help that bad weather and villain attacks helped to shorten that list. Towards the end of summer, Franklin and Rachel had to go their separate ways. The Baxter Building was not private by any means except for the thirteenth floor. Even scientists like Reed fell into triskaidekaphobia and had the floor blocked off. It obviously was not without some merit as Future Foundation members who hung out on the floor often ended up being frozen. This was before Franklin received his new ice powers mind you. What sealed the deal when the Human Torch got burned here for whatever reason, a phrase that can normally never be uttered. Now, the floor was a storage area.

“You’re kidding me,” Franklin grunted as he finished moving a filing cabinet.  _ That’s the last one. _ He saw the conference room was now clear for him to practice. When he tried to move his arms, he was just too tired to do so.  _ Why do we have this many filing cabinets and safes, and why did we shove them all in the same conference room? How am I going to keep moving them back and forth? _ He looked down at his shirt and saw it cling to his body. He felt his boxers cling to him as well.

* * *

“Dude, what’s with these books?” Franklin had dumped several old textbooks into his school locker. His friends were around him, looking at him with concern.

“Well, my, uh, doctor fixed my lungs over the summer,” Franklin lied, “But, uh, they need to be trained.”

“Right,” said Theo, “Just because things are repaired doesn’t mean you can use them immediately, especially after long periods of time. Franklin’s lung capacity needs to be expanded. Physical therapy is a thing.”

“Don’t understand what books have to do with expanding lung capacity, but I’m not a doctor,” said another friend. The clock on the wall made his eyes bulge. “Well, see you around.”

* * *

One day, it was raining. Traffic was slowing down to a crawl. Even the train traffic was more crowded and slower by extension. This was the perfect excuse for Franklin.

He was in the stairwell, running up the stairs. On a normal day, the Future Foundation would be in the stairwells, mostly to have shady meetings. Today, they were walled up in traffic. He would alternate between running and walking up steps using units of five flights. By the time he made it to his apartment, he fell on the ground practically walking through the door.

“Okay, I’m not trying this again any time soon,” coughed Franklin.

* * *

_ Thank goodness for mirrors. _

While it’s a peculiar design choice for a conference room, there were a series of mirrors which composed of the four walls. Of course, this is when you realize that everyone in that room would be a kid and on a computer. Obviously, preventative measures had to be taken. For Franklin, this benefitted him greatly. He could easily adjust his front stance whenever he found his legs spread too widely or narrowly and reangle his middle and high blocks to actually function as blocks.

_ What happened from August to May was the hell I put myself through. I had to hide it from my parents, from my friends, from everyone. Every stair I climbed, every punch I threw, everywhere I ran … all of it was to hone my body to fight for long periods of time. Let’s see how well I can use my powers. _

Franklin grunted as he moved the last filing cabinet back into the conference room after practicing his last kata, Unsu.  _ It feels so much lighter now. Guess training paid off. _

He touched the top of a cabinet.  _ Come on, make some frost.  _ Yes, a layer of frost was present.  _ Now, make some ice. _ The cabinet was completely enveloped in one giant ice spike. “Not too bad, Franklin.” He looked back at his arm and saw a layer of frost over it. He could move his fingers normally, but he began to encounter resistance moving them as time went on. “Guess I’m only immune to numbing whenever I use my powers. Now, let’s see how much ice I can make without holding back.”

That day, he had to wait a good long while to get out of the conference room since he sealed off the doorway. Needless to say, he was dripping wet when he left.

* * *

“Something’s up with Franklin. I just know it,” Valeria said to her father. She had finished tightening the bolts on their latest project: the Bridge. The multiversal portal needed to undergo maintenance once a year. “I found him soaking wet after leaving the thirteenth floor.”

“That doesn’t prove anything,” Reed said, “We saw time and time again that your Uncle Johnny needs to melt out the Future Foundation.”

“I already talked to Uncle Johnny who said he did not melt Franklin out,” said Valeria, “I am suspicious of his activities on that floor.”

“It is probably nothing,” said Reed.

“He’s also taken to bringing in the mail from downstairs,” said Val, “What is he up to?”

“Probably making himself useful. It only took him twelve years to learn his place.”

* * *

“Got it. Got yours?” Franklin was holding a letter in his hands. It spelled out clear as day in green ink his name and his ticket to enter a place called Camp Hammond.

“The mysterious ghost dog doesn’t lie,” Rachel said into her flip phone. “I think his name is Bats.”

“You got yours delivered by a mysterious ghost dog? That’s cool. Mine came in the mail,” said Franklin.

“Our mailroom is a chaotic mess,” said Rachel, “Trust me, the magical talking dog is necessary.”

“Okay? See you Memorial Day,” said Franklin. 

“See you, hero,” Rachel said.

* * *

It was the night before Memorial Day. Franklin was fast asleep in bed that night. He could just sleep the whole night away calmly. As the hours ticked by, Franklin was in a deep sleep.

What could only be described as the sensation of a finger breaking woke Franklin up. He was not in his bed anymore. This … was not his room. His room wasn’t a five star hotel room where he could smell the ocean and see a freaking volcano from the balcony. Also, he had a balcony. That beach down there looked awfully nice.

Had he been kidnapped? 

He began to look around for clues by opening the drawers. At least none of his parents’ villains were responsible. None of them would lock him in a hotel like this. His phone was there at least. His first reaction was to grab it. If he could open Maps, he could get his location.

“Room service,” said a voice at the door.

“Room service?” Franklin opened the door. “Uh, hi.” It is hard to pick out the words for such an awkward time in an awkward scenario. Franklin’s mind was still racing at the idea. Was this part of that secret test Rachel talked about? Of course it was, but what facility could easily house so many people and prevent parents from flipping out over missing their kids and causing mass hysteria and --

“Um, I can answer all those questions if you want,” said the girl. The girl on the other side of the door looked like an insomniac. The girl was draped in black: black frock coat, black pants, black boots, and black hood. The hood was down to build trust and not to scare kids into thinking the grim reaper had come for them. It didn’t help since the eye bags made her look like a zombie.

“I was muttering, right?” The girl nodded.

She held up her hand. “One, yes, this is part of Project Foresight. Congratulations, you’ve been selected to take the test. Two, this place, Camp Hammond, isn’t on Earth. Dr. Strange explains it as a dream world the sorcerers use to train. It’s pretty old and big. I think it’s like ninety Jovian radii or something like that. I have no idea how gravity isn’t crushing us either other than magic. We have a weird time axis. Again, magic.”

Franklin smiled. “Thanks … so what’s on the exam?”

“I’m not allowed to tell you anything like that.”

“Can’t blame me for trying.” Franklin shrugged. “So it looks like you’re wearing a uniform. What hero team are you a part of?”

“Huh, not exactly ready to answer questions about myself,” said Crowe, “I’m part of the 50 States Initiative. No one really heard about us because we really aren’t a team. We’re more of a federation of heroes.”

“I guess that makes sense. 50 States is a lot of land,” Franklin mused.

“Well, there’s also the whole decentralized leadership thing, but I’m sure you don’t need to hear about that.”

Crowe led Franklin to a lecture hall. Needless to say, his irises shrunk. There must have been 2000 people in that very lecture hall. He at least spotted one he was familiar with.

Rachel had saved Franklin a seat.

“You’ve bulked up a bit. You went from skinny pasty chopstick to other skinny pasty chopstick,” Rachel joked.

“Speak for yourself,” Franklin said, “I bet you’re still heavier than me.” He smiled a bit because he knew girls hated being called heavy.

“That’s your comeback? We’ve got to work on your trash talking and quips when we become heroes,” she chuckled.

As the lights dim, all eyes are on stage. Reed Richards stepped out.

“So we’ll begin here. With you and me. With a new focus for your ongoing and never-ending education. Our curriculum will start at survival and end at the edge of an eternal tomorrow. The rules are simple. Welcome to Project Foresight.”

Cold sweat ran down Franklin’s back as numbness overcame his hands. His mind just couldn’t process how his own father hid this from him. He was soon bombarded with a cascade of information about what they were exactly doing here. 

“Today,” Reed said, “You will be taking a test to see whether or not you can enter into our hero program. The first part will be a written test. You will have ninety minutes to study before taking a fifty minute exam. Then you will apply your powers and skills in a practical.”

The kids were given a book on the subject matter. Chatter filled the entirety of the lecture hall. Some had opted to find a secluded corner for quiet study. Others had opted to study in groups, hence the talking. Of course, some got distracted and began talking about other things.

By minute eighty-seven, Franklin and Rachel had about fallen over. 

Rachel was lying face first on the table. “I’m not looking forward to adulting,” she groaned.

“Yeah,” her friend on the floor said, “If I see the word ‘tax’ one more time, I’m going to puke.” Yes, Reed Richards really made the kids study the US Tax Code and would give them a test.  _ I wonder if they believe actually I can be a hero or just a hero’s secretary. _

The tests were out. Of course, kids were used to filling out bubbles on pages, including their names, date of birth, and other such information. After this, the clock began. No one actually remembers the test, but everyone certainly remembered the desire to barf after the fact. 

As the paper was being collected, Reed Richards stood on stage once more. “HERBIE should be done collecting your tests. The results will be used to see whether you passed or not. Now, it’s time for the practical.” 

Slides appeared on the screen. “Each of you will be placed in a simulated environment. In this environment, there will be an assortment of villains.” The first villains to flash on screen were Hydra’s generic foot soldiers. “The low level villains are worth three point each. They are rather easy to disable.” Another flashed on screen. These were the Dreadnoughts, armored mech suits worn by Hydra’s best fighters. “Elite villains are worth seven points each.” Another slide flashed, this time of Hydra agents no one had ever seen. They were clad in full armor and wore black and red rather than their usual green and yellow. “These are their bosses which will be an instant pass to whoever defeats them.”

Whispers began to fill the room as HERBIE began handing out location assignments. Franklin grabbed his card. “Ground 68. Ruby, what did you get?”

“Ground 81,” she said, “Don’t worry. We’ll get in together … even if we’re in different battlegrounds.”

_ I hope so. _

Obviously, pajamas weren’t exactly ideal for a physical race, so the kids change into clothes provided by the establishment. Gate 68 was sealed with a strange shield with glowing runes. How odd. It looks nothing like Dr. Strange’s magic. Franklin has had plenty of time to know what that looks like.

Everyone was shifting from foot to foot. Some were whispering. Whatever the case may be, the tension was there. Sweat ran down Franklin’s back, and the event hadn't even started.

“Franklin?” He turned around and saw the last person he expected. If he had seen his sister, he probably would have grown cold. 

“Theo?” It was just a friend from school.

“Wow, I didn’t realize that you’d be here. This is crazy, huh,” said Theo.

“Yeah,” said Franklin, “So, are you ready for this?”

“Hopefully,” Theo said as he looked at his hands, “I’m hoping there aren’t too many of those mech suits.”

“What exactly is your power again? It has something to do with touch, right?” 

Theo nodded. “You know  _ Pokemon …  _ I can induce a few status effects, but only if I touch the body like any exposed flesh. Yours?”

“I’m a glorified freezer,” said Franklin.

“Nice.” Emphasis on the ice part. The boys laughed.

“Begin!” The gate lowered its shield and instantly the kids rushed through.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Both Ghost and Dark's notes  
> \- Training montages don't work in texts.  
> Ghost's notes  
> \- The design for Camp Hammond changed constantly until we settled in the option where we pulled kids into the Realm of Sleep. It makes so much more sense for worldbuilding later on. The Realm of Sleep plays a bigger role in later chapters.
> 
> Dark's notes  
> \- I didn't contribute much to this chapter except for the tax code. I was joking about making them read the tax code. In reality, I wanted Macbeth, but I was overruled.


	4. The Practical

_ It’s started. I’m already behind!  _

Franklin scrambled for the gate as several of his competitors bolted forward. This may not have been a bad thing since so many people struck the floor the moment the gate was opened. Franklin was lucky to be in the back and was able to run.  _ Of course, everyone runs out of the same gate. It’s like shooting fish in a barrel. I just gotta get close. _

Franklin’s path towards the row of enemies involved staying low and staying towards the side of the street.  _ If everyone distracts them enough, I can -- _

Loud creaking filled the air as many of the test takers looked around. Out of the buildings came streams of water which flooded the streets. More importantly, the water froze the Hydra agents. One-by-one, the agents disappeared. 

One of the kids had a number appear over his head, 45 points.

“Alright,” cheered the boy as he took off for more villains.

_ That kid, he has a power just like -- _ Franklin dodged a diamond javelin from one of the competitors who thought he was getting too close.

“Quit if you don’t know what’s good for you,” said the kid who threw it. 

_ These guys have gone nuts, _ Franklin thought as he saw the kids get desperate. They began to turn on each other as the targets ran low. Lasers flew as wooden spikes tore through the ground.

* * *

The observation room was essentially a giant movie theater with nice leather seats for all the observers to watch. There were many heroes from many teams. Of course, Tony Stark got the best seat and held the controller for the entire test all in a comfortable holographic interface. 

Among them was an unimpressed hero and representative for the 50 States Initiative by the name of Sepulcher. “It’s not even the halfway mark, yet they’ve already started turning on each other,” sighed Sepulcher.

“Yeah, I sort of expected one or two of them to do that,” said Darkshifter, another Initiative representative, “But this is a lot. Like this girl.” He pointed to the screen with Valeria Richards. Valeria was firing her blasts behind another person into the villains. This would draw the attention of the villains away from her so she could blast them down.

“Of course, kids want the glory for themselves,” said Iron Man, “That kid with the water is already making the gap wider.”

“That’s not particularly a good thing,” Storm said.

“The kid with the ice seems to be taking down some of those attacking that boy. Perhaps they’re friends?” The Invisible Woman can’t even recognize her own son. The comedy writes itself.

“I say,” said Tiger Leech, yet another 50 States Initiative member, “Let’s make this interesting: move the Hydra High Commander to this street. Let’s see how well they work together now.”

* * *

As most of the kids chased lower level thugs in hopes of getting points. It was five minutes left, the final stretch. The High Commander closed his fist and unleashed a shockwave. Dirt flew into the sky, trees splintered, and the sound of car alarms filled the air. 

Franklin was on the ground. Next to him was Theo and that kid who easily defeated those low level villains.

“You two okay,” Franklin grunted.

“Yeah,” said the kid who defeated so many. He scanned around for water. “Dang it.”

“What?”

“I can’t make water. I need a source.” Franklin touched the ground and made some ice. At least two liters was present. “Thank you, but why are you helping me?”

“Well, a real hero needs to work with others.” Franklin looked at the High Commander who was blasting off concussive force blasts to heroes who attempted to go at him one at a time or were too busy backstabbing each other for glory. “What’s your name?”

“Huh?”

“Well, we need to call you something other than the guy who’s getting all the points,” snarked Theo.

“It’s Coco,” said the kid, “So, what’s the plan to get close?”

“He’s not using his area of effect attack,” said Franklin, “So it must be taxing. It would be very useful since everyone is coming at him from all sides. His power is similar to Quake’s, but he’s not wearing any protective gear, meaning that his power is probably going to break his bones.”

“Right, so how do we beat him?” 

Franklin looked out and saw the intervals High Commander was firing off.  _ Two … five … eleven… he’s slowing down.  _ He noticed that the High Commander was concerned about taking down the groups and not the individuals.  _ Of course, his powers take out groups the best. It’s less effort to aim and more for your energy. _

“Theo can close in from on low to induce a status effect,” said Franklin, “Coco and I can go on high and be a distraction.”

“Wait, then who gets the points,” said Coco.

“My powers only work so long as I keep in contact,” said Theo, “I still need to actually do some punching for me to actually get points.”

“If we all hit at once, who’s to say we didn’t take High Commander out?” Franklin pointed out.

“But that makes … Mr. Fantastic probably made a fail safe and -- sure, whatever,” said Coco, “Let’s get him!”

_ I’m not sure what will happen, but I need to give it my all. _ Franklin aimed his hand at High Commander and fired one of his frozen javelins. The air around him cooled until everyone could see their breaths and rubbed their hands together for warmth. That was Franklin’s first real display of his power without holding back.  _ Still need to develop it more. But that’s all I have for now _ . The High Commander felt the wind kick up and saw the blast. Immediately, a shockwave was sent to break it. 

Using his water, Coco created three corkscrew tendrils to form a drill directly for High Commander. Practical? No. Flashy? Yes. It served its purpose. It, too, was dispersed by a blast just like anyone else. 

_ Here goes nothing. _ Slamming the ground in front of him, Franklin created a series of ice spikes which headed towards High Commander. The High Commander destroys the ice rather easily. Franklin grabbed his arm.  _ That hurt more than it should. Do I have a limit to my power? _ Coco saw an opportunity. The ice in the air became perfect projectiles, no, meteors to crash upon High Commander. Good thing he could change the direction which allows him to not hit Theo.

_ Ow! My arm … it’s howling.  _ Franklin gripped his left arm. Wrapping his other arm in ice, he saw an opportunity to charge. Theo was getting close. Now was their chance.

“Gotcha!” said Theo as he appeared from the other side and grabbed his arm. Jolts of electricity ran through High Commander’s entire body as he was rendered unable to move. “Now!”

Ice, water, and a fist were about to strike High Commander, but a flash of light blasted High Commander away.

“Time’s up.”

He looked back to the person who fired the killing blow, how he jumped up and down with glee. Franklin couldn’t feel an ounce of hatred for him. Instead, he felt a very familiar feeling of disappointment as tears blurred his vision.

It was over.

What happened next was a blur to Franklin. Sure, he could get up, go to the locker room, and get changed, but he sure didn’t remember it. What followed was a gap in his memory.

* * *

The Observation Room began to shift. The room brightened as the seats shifted from facing the screen. A long conference table rose from the ground as everyone gathered. 

Representing the Avengers were Captain America, Falcon, Scarlet Witch, and Iron Man.

Representing the Fantastic Four were, well, the Fantastic Four: Mr. Fantastic, Invisible Woman, Human Torch, and the Thing.

Representing the X-Men were Storm, Colossus, Sunfire, and Warpath.

Representing the final group, the teen heroes called the 50 States Initiative, were Sepulcher, Tiger Leech, Frenzy Plant,and Darkshifter.

“Okay, the rules here are simple,” Iron Man said, “We get a name, a footage of their fight, and their scores and rankings. Then we debate whether we put them in the running for a spot. This is going to take forever.”

“To make this fast, I motion to remove anyone who scored below a fifty percent on the written portion of the exam out of the running for a spot,” said Sepulcher. “If you wish to know my reasoning, I will give it. Heroism is more than just passion. It’s applied passion. Raw data is needed in the field to make choices that incur the least amount of harm. If you cannot memorize the law, then my trust in someone to memorize numbers, locations, persons of interest, attack patterns, and other significant evidence vastly diminishes.”

“Yikes,” coughed the Human Torch, “How old are you kid? You sound like Reed when he’s about to go on about Fick’s Law.”

“Fourteen.” 

“Jesus.” Johnny collapsed into his chair. You would think living in a building filled with geniuses would make this less shocking. It didn’t. There’s a difference between teen genius and professional teen hero. He was used to the latter, but the former was so much different from the Ms. Marvel and Nova-types he knew about.

“Uh, any objections,” said Tony, “I guess we will strike anyone who made below a fifty from the board.” The board itself cleared to show a reduced pool of contestants. 

For the practical portion, the numbers told the story. The score, however, was not the end all, be all unless you took out the villain. The score that matters the most is the merit/demerit system. Each participant has their exam score (50 points), their practical score (50 points), and the merit/demerit score (100 points). The latter is given at the discretion of the groups, each able to pledge 25 points. However, each group may present an argument which may influence the others.

Of course, anyone with prior history with a participant or immediate family would be struck from voting and their points redistributed. 

“Henry Southgate,” read the Invisible Woman, “Interesting powers and he took out the High Commander in Ground 68.”

“He’s in, no questions asked since he did such,” said Tiger Leech, “However, had we not had that rule, we would have dissent to his entry. His cowardice in the face of danger except in the clear case of victory is antithetical to being a hero whose job is to make opportunities for themselves to minimize the danger.”

“Personally,” said Darkshifter, “I don’t think he has what it takes. We need to give it to someone who won’t get expelled on the first day.”

“Expel?” Storm questioned.

“It’s a provision SHIELD added,” said Mr. Fantastic, “They want to gamble on a good generation of heroes, not a bad one. I personally disagree with it, but I can’t control that.”

“Be wary of who you expel so that we don’t inadvertently create villains for a new generation,” warned Storm. Last year’s incident with Quentin Quire and the Omega Gang was far from aged in her mind.

“Well, we already set the ground rules,” said Tiger Leech, “Like, I’d personally like to get rid of anyone who thought it was a good idea to sabotage their teammates. I mean, look at this girl.” Valeria was on the screen. In this particular scene, she had kicked someone directly in front of the High Commander to take a shot for her before countering with her own attack. “That’s not heroic in any sense of the word and only sows distrust among the community. If only she didn’t take out the boss, then we can kick her from the board.”

“I can’t comment on her,” said Reed, “Now, our next candidate.”

Let’s play a drinking game:

  * Take a shot for every candidate rejected
  * Take a shot for every time the 50 States Initiative acts older than they look


  * Take a shot for every time someone is rejected on the grounds of acting “unheroic”
  * Take a shot for every time a blue blood defeats the Hydra commander and gains instant access
  * Take a shot for every soul which shrivels at the idea of someone getting into the program on technicality



“Our next candidate is Franklin Richards.” Reed didn’t seem phased by it. The two names were common enough. There is no way that could be … 

Indeed it was. While eyes were peeled and mouths were agape for the Avengers, X-Men, and Fantastic Four, the Fifty States Initiative were confused at their surprise.

“Is he related to that Valeria girl,” said Frenzy Plant, “He kind of looks like her.”

“Except he looks insecure and scared, but he’s certainly heroic,” observed Sepulcher, “And she looks like she is an assassin designed only for a mission rather than a hero. And I thought Hitomoshi and I were odd.”

“I can’t believe it. How did we let this slip through the cracks?” Reed coughed, unable to get the other words he wished to say since his brain is moving faster than his muscles at the moment.

“Is he a villain? Have we been compromised,” questioned Darkshifter, “I can go capture him and then get Internal Affairs to --”

“No, it’s just that … we cannot participate in this,” said Sue, “We’re his parents.”

“We can’t either,” Tony said, “The Human Torch and Thing are Avengers. I have business dealing with Dr. Richards. Too much of a conflict of interest.”

“He’s probably headed to the X-Men headquarters as we speak,” said Ororo, “We obviously cannot say anything on his behalf.”

“Who even recommended him?” said Sue.

“I doubt anyone here recommended him into the program. According to my records, he filled out his paperwork like everyone else,” said Sepulcher, “Given this is the first time we even saw his face, I say the decision falls to our feet.”

“We were lucky previous blue bloods defeated the Hydra commanders.” Tiger Leech let out a small laugh. “Who would have thought the choice would rest with us? A hundred points. Feel free to split your twenty-five. Marshal, you always have something to say about every examinee.”

“This is no different,” said Sepulcher, “He made 42.5 out of 50 on the written portion. 85 percent isn’t bad by any means, but it’s not good either.”  _ The hell was this kid saying about 85 not being good? _ “However, his performance was beyond subpar, an embarrassment… from a raw numbers perspective. The footage tells a different story.”

The board flashed with a hologram of Franklin coordinating an attack on the High Commander with Coco and Theo.

“As simple as the strategy may have been, it was successful against the simulation. Despite not directly having the finishing blow, he proves he can think like a hero to beat a villain. Compare that to the likes of the others who defeated their foes by overpowering them. The idea one can face off against a stronger villain and succeed is what makes heroes, well, heroes in the first place. After all, I’m sure Doom, Kang, Thanos, and Galactus weren’t easy. The fact he is a child and can do the same is proof of potential. I’m going to gamble a 25 for this boy. I look forward to listening to the follow up from my fellow tetrarchs.” 

“His powers are without polish,” said Tiger Leech, “It’s noticeable. It’s like he recently got them. Still, steel is forged in fire. He’ll have plenty of time to master his powers. I say let him in.”

“We’re teaching people to become heroes,” said Frenzy Plant, “He shows potential.”

“Honestly, if I was in his position, I probably would have done the same,” said Darkshifter, “He has my vote.”

* * *

“Wait, you got nothing?” Rachel said to her tearful friend.

He sobbed, unable to say a single thing.

“Hey, maybe there was more to the test than you think.” Rachel was basically pulling the old trope of a secret test of character. She really didn’t believe the real world was like that.

She looked at her hand and saw a letter and immediately dropped it like it was an active hotplate. It wasn’t there earlier, but she was compelled to open it.  _ Dr. Strange’s magic _ . She looked at Franklin’s hand. Yes, he too had one. It’s time. It’s time to find out.

“Open yours first,” Franklin said.

“Come on, Franklin, you’re going to need to deal with it sooner or later. Let’s pull it off like a bandaid,” she said. Grabbing his letter, she tore it open.

“To Franklin Richards,” Rachel read aloud, “We want to know that every decision we make has been thoroughly examined and held to the highest regard. There is nothing more we value than objectivity and fairness.” Rachel gagged. “Sounds like your dad wrote this.” She continued to read. “We inform you that you have been allotted a spot at Camp Hammond at the Beginner Level Section A. Congratulations.”

“I-I got in?” Of course, Rachel caught her friend as he broke down in tears. “What about you?”

Tearing open her letter (and using the envelope to wipe his tears), he smiled. “Beginner Level Section A.”

“Come here, you.” The pair hugged. It took a whole year, but it was Franklin’s turn to flatten Rachel’s lungs.

“So, want to go shopping tomorrow?”

“Sure.”

* * *

In New York City, the rain began to fall. Droplets of water distorted Valeria’s view of shining New York City. The night was young, but Valeria felt enough rage to burn for centuries. 

“I can’t believe you let him in,” Valeria was whispering, barely able to hold back her anger. It sounded like she could snap at any second.

“We had no choice,” said Sue, “Franklin impressed the entire Tetrarchy.”

“Then they’re gullible,” said Val, “Letting in a cheater and fake like him in.”

“It’s possible that Franklin’s x-factors reactivated, but that’s not the point.” Reed curled his fist at the mere idea that his grand plan has such a major flaw in it. Franklin would be the loose end they would need to cut. “You must prevent him from being a hero at all cost. That’s why we’re putting you in his class. Your job is to make the grand plan happen no matter what.”

“Fine, I’ll shake the mistake out,” said Val, “I’ll at least won’t have to hold back against him. Maybe a training accident will remove the defect --”

“We’re placing you with Marshal,” said Sue, “Training accidents can be solved easily by him. Not to mention, he’ll have your head for that. Between you and the harshest instructor there, Franklin will quit or be expelled. Your job is to make your brother’s life harder, not ours.”

Val clenched her teeth at the mere idea of sharing blood with him. “Fine, I won’t make Marshal suspicious. But I get to not hold back against him, right?” Her parents nodded. “Good.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ghost's Notes  
> \- Like we were going to have Franklin not pass this test.  
> \- We get our first set of major OCs: Sepulcher, Tiger Leech, Frenzy Plant, and Darkshifter ... and Theo, Coco, and Henry  
> \- Students really didn't backstab each other during the original draft. Dark added that in later.  
> Dark's Notes  
> \- Students backstabbing and being unheroic was a thing I added. I was in the theater department of my high school and found the amount of backstabbing and prima donnas to be appalling. Sure, just because I got the lead despite never acting before made all the "veteran" actors hate me. It's Macbeth for a school play, not Broadway.  
> \- Henry was supposed to be a different character from the kill-stealer. I made him one in the same for characterization purposes later.  
> \- I know it's nitpicky, but I used the term x-factors rather than x-gene to be a bit more biologically accurate. Inhumans get y-factors and mutates get z-factors.


	5. The Master

# Arc 2 | Keep Your Spot

_Camp Hammond was the first of its kind, a superhero training camp for a whole new generation. A-list heroes like my parents, the Avengers, and the X-Men all teach there. There were eighty spots open for the beginner level divided into four classes of twenty people. And I’m one of them!_

Franklin and Rachel walked out of the portal in front of Camp Hammond’s entrance. It looked magnificent. It was a ten story tower surrounded by so many places each with a gym label. Of course, Stark had his hands in the tower. It doesn’t matter if it's only ten stories tall. Stark had to put his name on top of it.

“Are you ready to meet the best of the best?” Rachel said, barely containing her excitement.

Franklin shrank a bit. He knew he probably got in on a clerical error or even worse nepotism. “I’m ready.” His fake excitement could fool anyone else, but Rachel was not anyone else.

“Come on, you didn’t get in on a fluke,” said Rachel, “I know you. They probably saw something about you. It’s not all about the flashy powers or just the numbers.” 

“You’re right, but I can’t just shake this feeling I’ll be the most useless person in the room,” Franklin gulped.

“Come on, stop assuming and take it head on!” She grabbed his hand.

“Ruby wait!” Too late, they already took off. She flew through the halls. No, she didn’t run fast. She literally flew through the halls and dragged Franklin by the arm behind her. The fact he still had his arm is nothing short of a miracle.

The rooms in Camp Hammond’s main building were clearly labeled. Rachel looked for the one that stated the Beginner Level Section A while dragging Franklin behind her. She was glad he was slowing her down since she could read more accurately.

She did find the room. The door was translucent. Sliding it to the side, she saw a room which was inhabited by her class.

“Cereal is a soup!” This kid was a short one, actually shorter than Franklin with a skinny frame to match. Franklin honestly found him pastier than himself. Maybe it was the brown hair contrasting with his skin considering Franklin’s hair is white? At least the petty argument over cereal being a soup reaffirms that the next generation of heroes are still kids no matter the circumstances.

“Yeah right. Next thing you’ll tell me is that a hotdog is a sandwich,” said a short Chinese boy who really didn’t merit the other guy trying to stand tall since they were roughly the same height. Wait a minute.

“Coco?” Franklin said.

“Oh hey Franklin,” said Coco, “Theo’s also here.”

“Theo’s here? I guess I never expected him to be this early,” Franklin cheered.

“Dude was the first guy here. Apparently, he’s been exploring the campus since weird time effects,” said Coco.

“Oh yeah, he got in,” said Rachel, “I didn’t even know he had powers.”

“Well, I didn’t know he did until the exam.” Franklin said scratching the back of his head. 

“That’s okay. He didn’t know about yours until the exam either,” Coco said. He oddly had his eyes fixed on Rachel. “He didn’t even think you were real.”

“Huh?”

“He told you about her?” Franklin asked.

“Well, I heard his life’s story since I was the second guy here.” Coco shrugged. “You gotta do what you gotta do when bored.”

“Hey Franklin!” Theo said. His face grew cold and his smile awkward. “Oh, you’re real.”

“Why wouldn’t I be?” Rachel couldn’t exactly be described as saying it. It was somewhere between a sigh, a baffled _pfft,_ and actually saying it. 

“I thought you weren’t real! I just thought Franklin was lonely at home so he made you up,” said Theo, “Don’t give me that look! You know half the crap you two pull is insane.”

“Well, I wasn’t telling you the truth exactly,” Franklin admitted, “Her parents are rather secretive.”

“Oh, so that’s why you don’t have pictures of her on your phone,” Theo realized, “If you don’t mind me asking … ”

“Great Scourge,” Rachel said without much enthusiasm. He chose not to press her further given it was _that_ tragedy.

“She looks a little bit like that psychic X-Man,” said Coco, “What’s her name again? Phoenix.”

“Err.” Rachel was pulling her collar at the sound of her mother’s hero name.

“I don’t think we’ve heard much about you,” said Franklin to deflect the conversation, “Besides that you’re from Virginia.”

Coco blinked three times. “How did you find that out?”

“You told him,” Rachel giggled.

Coco blinked. “What?”

“Accents tell a lot about someone,” said Rachel.

“He did that to me the first day of third grade,” said Theo, “Turns out, my New York accent’s a bit different from everyone else’s.”

“There’s a hint of Amharic in it,” Franklin explained.

“I knew I’d find you two here” said a familiar voice.

“Hisako,” Franklin said.

“Yeah, surprise,” Rachel said sheepishly.

“Not really,” Franklin chuckled,”With a power like that, I knew she’d get in. Anyone else we’d know here?”

“Can’t speak for her, but there’s one other.” It appeared to Franklin that actual steam was coming out of Coco’s nostrils. His arrow-like eyes were pointed directly at another boy. It was the kid who was arguing over whether cereal is a soup. He had taken to showing off to a girl.

“So anyways,” said the boy with the brown hair trying to show off to a girl his (non-existent) muscles, “I beat the boss and got in no questions asked.”

“Err.” Franklin’s eyes weren’t focused on the boy who stole his win from him. They were focused on the girl with the textbook. _It can’t be her. You’re just overreacting. I’m sure there’s a lot of blond girls who bury their heads in textb --_ A flash of green forces the boy to fly through the air. _Oh crap, it’s her!_

“Does she act like this at home,” Hisako whispered to Franklin. She knew about Reed and Sue’s desire to not have anyone know about his heritage hence the attempts at secrecy.

“What? How did you --” Franklin was flushed and jerked his head towards Rachel. “Ruby!”

“Sorry,” said Rachel, “The others don’t know.”

“She’s actually nicer,” Franklin said after regaining some composure.

“What a jackass,” Coco commented.

“Wow, you went from steaming hatred to defending the guy,” Theo said.

“Don’t get me wrong. I still _fucking_ hate the guy, but two wrongs don’t make a right.”

“Did you just _fucking_ swear?” Another girl seemingly appeared out of nowhere and ended up forcing Franklin to the ground from the mere shock of her appearance.

“Uh, no,” Coco said sheepishly.

“You totally did!”

“Who is this girl?” Rachel interjected.

“I’m Beatrice,” said the girl, “Nice to meet you.”

“Another Virginian,” said Franklin.

“Oh, you do the accent thing from _My Fair Lady_. What area am I from?”

“I’m not that good,” Franklin admitted, “Um, Dogwood Grove near Norfolk?”

“Close,” said Coco, “Both of us are from Cardinal Hollow. I mean, you weren’t too far off. I think another guy here is from Dogwood Grove.”

“Weird that you could pinpoint my accent being Hiroo but not theirs,” Hisako said.

“Well, it’s a big world out there.”

“Okay,” Rachel chuckled, “We’re all going to be friends. What other musicals do you like?”

“Annie.” Rachel scowled. “Is something wrong?” Beatrice took a step back from the girl who looked like steam was about to leave her ears.

“Red hair, green eyes, and a New Yorker,” Franklin coughed.

“Hey, it’s not like your name is Annie or anything,” Beatrice said.

“Sure.” Let’s ignore for a moment that Rachel’s middle name is Anne. It’s only one letter off.

The door opened once more. The person who walked into the room was different. He wasn’t that much taller than anyone else in the room. He certainly looked as young as them. The smile was big and warm, but it was odd. He didn’t need to do much to command authority. It was like everyone saw him and knew he was the authority.

He must have been fourteen or fifteen at most. This boy had a head of messy black hair. In terms of dress, he was odd. He was wearing a blue shirt with matching pants with both adorning white lines with a black coat over all this. He also was wearing shoes with metal coverings on them. It’s an odd look, but when you’re the master, you really don’t care how you look.

“Hi there,” said the boy, “My name is Marshal Pham, but you can call me Master Pham since I’m going to be your heroics instructor while you’re here. You may call me Master Pham, Mr. Pham, or sir.”

“Aren’t you a little young to be teaching us,” said one of the girls.

“Yes, yes I am,” said Marshal, “Now, let me call roll.”

“Kaelynn Alexander.”

“Here.” Franklin honestly believed this girl would look really good in a Nova helmet for some reason, but he couldn’t put his finger on it.

“Maggie Braddock.”

“Here.” Franklin looked over at the girl. Indeed, that was the same Maggie Braddock who was in the Future Foundation, same black hair, same gray eyes, same daughter of Captain Britain. 

“Danielle Cage.”

“Here.” He could barely hear her, but he did recognize her face. This is oddly the second person he’s seen and knows. She’s the daughter of that couple who runs Alias Investigations.

“Candela Callisto.” 

“Here.” At least this was a new name to Franklin. For a person whose name is Candela, she obviously didn’t get a lot of sun. Maybe she was from up north?

“Griff Collins.” 

“Here.” Another person Franklin didn’t recognize. He was thankful for this. This particular boy wore a smile that screamed ‘I’m going to swindle you.’ If he wore thick glasses, one would not be particularly wrong to assume he was trying for the role of Richie Tozier.

“Coco Hua.”

“Here.”

“Hisako Ichiki.”

“Here.”

“Kei Kawade.”

“Here.” Oh, this was the hero who summoned all those kaiju for yet another alien invasion. What is with Earth and getting invaded? Well, he was noticeable because of the orange monster hoodie with the two white eyes on the hood. It’s hard to avoid that.

“Cor Liu.”

“Here.” Maybe it’s the ripped clothes, the hair covering one of his eyes, or the shirt that says “I’m not a tsundere. I just hate you,” but someone about him yelled “emo” to Franklin.

“Leon Manh.”

“Here.” Ah yes, Karma’s nephew. He met him once at the Xavier Institute, but that was a long time ago.

“Theodore Mikal.”

“Here.”

“Mika Mochizuki.”

“Here.” This girl with chestnut hair sat like she was on a throne. Her demeanor reminded him of Rachel a bit.

“Alexander Power.” A kid whose last name is Power and is in a superhero program? Now, Franklin has seen it all.

“Franklin Richards.”

“Here.” 

“Valeria Richards.”

“Here.”

“Satoshi Sato.” This one with the spiky hair looked like he could start blowing steam from his nostrils any moment.

“Henry Southgate.”

“Here.” At least Franklin had a name to a face when it came to _this guy._

“Rachel Summers.”

“Here.”

“Tyler Taylor.” 

“Here.” He had oddly a deep voice for a kid like them. He also looked like the youngest person in the room, aside from Henry. It’s no surprise that the two youngest people would sit next to each other.

“Jiang Xie.”

“Here.” 

“Good, all twenty of you are here,” said Marshal, “Now, let’s set some ground rules.” He pulled out books for the kids from a bag he was holding, each about the size of a small novel. “Each one of you will use these handbooks to go back and forth from here and Earth. You are expected to be on time. You are also not allowed to sleep while in this world. Since we are in a dream world, sleeping has disastrous consequences.”

“Like,” questioned Rachel.

“Summoning nightmare creatures. Unless you wish to be expelled for attempting to kill your fellow students, I suggest hitting the coffee if you feel tired.” _This guy sounds outright happy saying this. It’s so weird._ “This is a training camp for heroes. It will not just be physical training. You will need to know the law and regulations that come with using our powers. We live in a changing society. Thirty years ago, no one would have seen a full third of the world be populated with superhumans, yet here we are. Maps of the entire facility are posted at each corner, but I will make this quick just for the first day.” A portal opened beside Marshal. “You will head over to our designated gym to get changed. Await my instructions.”

The uniform they received wasn’t particularly impressive. The white shirt, black shorts, and white shoes weren’t as impressive as a school PE uniform (such an odd thing to think strangely enough), but it was what they did their job. Marshal stood before them. Their gym looked more like a place for pokemon training than a gym for heroics. I guess that makes sense considering their own powers. 

Marshal’s happy go lucky attitude immediately faded. “Two thousand kids tested to stand where you stand now,” Marshal said, “You have the opportunity to keep that spot or lose it.”

“Does that mean --” Rachel gasped. _He wouldn’t do that on the first day, would he?_

“That I’m expelling at least one of you today? Yes,” said Marshal without so much as a hint of regret. “You might be able to coast by in school on ‘just good enough,’ but I’m not asking for school grades. I’m asking for you to save lives and fight villains. ‘Just good enough’ isn’t going to cut it. I don’t expect perfection, but I do expect you to give more than 100% of your effort.”

Whispers broke out between the kids. Valeria looked directly at her master who didn’t notice her glaring. _So, this is the toughest instructor here. I’m unimpressed._

“For today’s exercise, it’s going to be a spin on an old game all of you have played,” said Marshal, “Capture the flag won’t be played on a level field.” Two portals opened behind him. “You choose the base and guard the flag. Bring your opponent’s flag to your base to win the game. Use all your powers and skills within reason to defeat your opponent. This goes without saying, but outright killing your opponent will get you expelled and charged with murder. You have half an hour to complete this.” The portals approached the kids. “Boys to my left. Girls to my right.”

After those portals were sealed, Marshal opened another one towards the control room. 

The control room was nothing fancy. There was a table in the middle of the room which gave a 3D layout of the complex and tracked the kids through individual windows. Marshal had his notebook and pencils at his desk already pre-prepared. Yes, he anticipated using multiple pencils.

“You’re already throwing students into this on the first day,” said the technician. For today, the technician was Reed Richards.

“Of course, Dr. Richards,” said Marshal, “The entrance exam said they can deal with a straightforward situation. You and I know that life is rarely like that. Throwing them into a situation where they need to use all their skills and powers will be quite the interesting challenge.”

“Are you really going to expel them if they fail?” Reed wanted his verification on Marshal’s reputation.

“If they fail to show any effort, then they have no right to be here. It’s better to remove them here than to see easily preventable disasters come to pass,” Marshal said coldly, “Let’s see what these kids have to offer.”

Reed looked at the hologram of Franklin who was standing with the boys. _Perfect,_ Reed thought, _My vision will still be fulfilled._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We have a lot to get through in these two chapters. Let's begin:  
> \- Kaelynn Alexander is an older Kaelynn Alexander from the comics. Jim Zub (?) tweeted something about her being a good Captain Marvel in the future, so we just ran with it.  
> \- Maggie Braddock was going to be mixed race since both of us grew up seeing Psylocke as an Asian woman and neither wanted to deal with the beehive of problems with the race swap.  
> \- Marshal's chipper attitude in contrast with his Thrawn-like demeanor was made because we wanted to give more characterization to the strict teacher besides being a strict teacher. Personally, we both find that the strict teacher who doesn't give a shit and the strict teacher who is a military reject to be different levels of boring. Having a happy and excitable master who is strict was much more fun to write.
> 
> Now, onto the next chapter!


	6. Battles Lost and Won

“We should do something?”

“Should we do something?”

“We should do something?”

“Should we do something?”

“We should do something?”

“Should we do something?”

“We should do something?”

“Should we do something?”

“We should do something?”

“Should we do something?”

“We should do something?”

“Should we do something?”

If you felt like I wasted your time, then you know how Franklin feels. He was currently curled up in the corner as several of the boys decided to fight over who was leader. At least they agreed to establish a base where they were rather than fight over that. It’s not like they have enough headaches to deal with at the moment.

“I’m just saying that I would be a great leader. I’ve already got field experience,” Alex Power argued.

Coco rolled his eyes. “Yeah right. Did you get it fighting space aliens on another world?”

Of course, Alex did get his powers fighting space aliens on another world, but that would not be a convincing argument now. The alien space horses would just make him look cuckoo at this moment.

“I still say I would be the best leader.” Henry held his head high. “I got here by beating the boss in an instant win.”

“Yeah by stealing it,” Theo snorted.

“You can’t prove that.”

“I was there! He was there! And he was there!”

Franklin was curled up right next to Kei Kawade who was violently scribbling across a page in his sketchbook. “What are you doing?”

“Stress drawing a possible deus ex machina,” Kei said rather dispassionately, “What? It’s the best idea anyone’s had. I just need to figure out how to counter nine girls and get the flag. Maybe I can sacrifice flight for muscle enhancement … ”

_ What would Ruby do?  _ Franklin took a deep breath. “Stop fighting!” Everyone now stared at him, struck silent. Even Kei stopped drawing. “Look, I don’t care who’s leader. Can we at least agree to fortify this base? The girls are probably going to be here any minute. We might as well do something rather than nothing.”

“Okay,” Coco said, “What’s the plan?”

“Huh?” Franklin blinked a bit at Coco.

“Well, you have all our attention,” Coco said, “What’s the plan?”

* * *

“Then it’s settled. We press the boys on all ends,” Valeria picked up her crude drawing of the tunnels. “Here are the pairs: Kaelynn and Danielle, Maggie and Hisako, Mika and Rachel, and Candela and Beatrice.”

“What about you?” Rachel asked.

“I need to guard the flag, fool,” Valeria said, “In case you screw up and I end up confronting the boys.”

“Why are you here when you should be helping us?” added Kaelynn, “We could just have a moving flag and they won’t --”

“A simple mind like you wouldn’t understand the need for a good defense,” Val said, “What are you dolts waiting for, a kiss on the cheek? Go!”

* * *

“It’s always interesting to see how the boys and girls operate,” said Marshal. He pointed to the projection of the boys. “Both are like crystals. The boys are like diamonds. You need to pressure them enough to force them into a lattice.”

“What about the girls?” Reed asked.

“Girls are like salt crystals,” said Marshal who scraped his pencil across the page, “They are crystals at first, but you can always dissolve them later.”

“That’s an … interesting analogy,” said Reed, “What does it say about the kids?”

“Well, if we’re extending the analogy,” Marshal explained, “The boys are strong like diamonds; however, diamonds are hard and brittle. The girls’ initial unity can dissolve and reform weaker. It just takes the right conditions to break them both.”

“I see,” Reed said, “So do any students stand out to you?”

“This will determine that,” said Marshal. “The inflexible heart breaks first, the toughest iron cracks first, and the wildest horses bend their necks at the pull of the smallest curb.” Marshal picked up his pencil.

The environment Marshal had chosen for these kids was certainly an interesting one. He had taken an underground mall and modified it to his liking. Level One was simply what one would expect from an abandoned mall: sealed storefronts, dry fountains, and an overall lack of light. This is where the boys made their base. Level Nine was where the girls made their base. This was the catacombs based on the ones he read about in Paris before the Great Scourge forced so many people to retreat.

As different as the two groups were, he knew what the kids would do next. Scouting parties would be sent to each of the levels to find and retrieve the flag.

* * *

The utility tunnels were warm as expected. Steam pipes ran across the roof and sometimes to the side. The steam wasn’t particularly hot, but it was still steam. The light was low with only the flickering ones on the walls operating.

“Come out. I can smell you,” Maggie snarled oddly comprehensively to human ears. The darkness. 

Henry sighed. “So much for the element of surprise.” Blue orbs enveloped his hands and illuminated the way. “What?” he said.

“Well, you just ruined the perfect atmosphere for a battle,” Hisako exasperated.

Henry began to wave his hands. “Well how was I supposed to know that?”

“Read the room.”

“It was almost pitch black. There was nothing to read!”

“Whatever, let’s get this over with,” Hisako sighed, “Does the werewolf want to fight with the vampire bat?” Maggie let out an enthusiastic snarl. “I’ll take that as a yes. I’ll get whoever this guy is.”

“Whoever this guy is? I’m the guy who got in no questions asked! I’m just that good! Take this!” A blue beam struck Hisako. Pipes burst and steam was dumped onto the kids. Out of the steam came Hisako with her arm draped in her aura armor. “The hell?”

“I know my armor has limits, so I put the full brunt of my powers into my arm to counter it,” grunted Hisako, “So worth it.”

The moment Henry saw her charging for him, he decided there was one thing to do. 

“Every man for himself!” Those were his last words before he phased through the floor and left behind his clothes.

Cor made some incomprehensible screeches.

“Yeah, I know, he’s totally a weenie,” said Maggie, “But you don’t need to be so vulgar about it.”

Hisako raised an eyebrow. “You understand him?” 

“Werewolf,” Maggie snarled, “What kind of werewolf can’t understand bats and vampires?”

“Wolfsbane.”

“Touche.”

Of course, Cor made his strategic withdrawal rather quickly while the girls were talking.

* * *

Marshal’s pencil stopped. “The ‘no questions asked’ guy, everyone,” Marshal scoffed.

“Give it time. These skirmishes are not everything,” said Mr. Fantastic, “Next time, we’re going to modify the rules about the ‘no questions asked’ clause of the entrance exam.”

“Indeed,” Marshal said, “As for Cor, there is no shame in running. If his circumstances aren’t favorable, then he should cut his losses; however, the girls should have not let their guard down to let him retreat so easily. Personally, I would have had Cor used his echolocation and Henry to take Maggie in a surprise attack before fighting it out with Hisako” He scribbled some more notes about the fight. “Let’s see who else is fighting.”

* * *

Two pairs stood face-to-face in the middle of a subway. Theo and Satoshi stood on one side while Kaelynn and Danielle stood on the other. 

“Are we just going to stand here or are we going to have a battle?” Satoshi slammed his fists together.

“We’re on a moving train,” Kaelynn exasperated, “What are you, a little kid?” A little kid using ‘little kid’ as an insult is the most little kid thing a little kid can do.

“Hey, don’t call me a kid, you kid!” Shurikens suddenly formed. Flying across the train car, they struck the metal where they slashed everywhere.

“Water?” Kaelynn observed. She smiled. A fireball appeared in her hand and cackled through the train car.

“Are you sick in the head?” Theo scolded, “We’re not trying to kill each other.” He went straight for her. Yes, she did fire a blast at him, but he knew she wouldn’t risk outright murder. However, he was kicked by Satoshi and thrown against some seats.

“We’re in the middle of a battle here,” Satoshi said. 

Theo opened his mouth to question his judgment, but he shut it in time.  _ There’s still the other girl. _ He charged for Danielle who only dodged his attempts to use Status Effect on her. Sleep was obviously out of the picture since they’re not allowed to sleep in this realm. Confusion wasn’t an option since powers make it dangerous. Paralysis was the only viable power.

“Whoosh.” Danielle said it softly and quietly that not much wind came into Theo’s face. Still, he blasted enough dust in his eyes for him to crash into a pole rather than strike Danielle.

“Ow.” He grabbed his forehead. His vision wasn’t blurry, thankfully. Then he saw Danielle along the walls on the other side of the subway.

He took one step forward and immediately saw a stream of fire. “Crap.”

The water was condensing all over the walls and windows. Kaelynn was covered in water and not from the water shurikens made by Satoshi. It was clear to Theo that Satoshi didn’t need to beat. He needed to outlast her. 

Another fire stream tore through the train car. It was hot.

“Wait! Why is this place rattl --” The train derailed almost immediately and began slamming through walls.

* * *

“What was that?” Reed commented.

“A test to see how well they managed their surroundings,” said Marshal, “Not very well. Theo, Satoshi, and Kaelynn all had tunnel vision on their opponents. Lack of situational awareness has killed more than enough would be heroes.” Casually opening a portal, Marshal stepped in. Reed saw a flash of green came from the hologram in what he assumed was Marshal’s healing powers. He then walked back. “The injuries aren’t major, just some minor cuts from broken glass. Now, onto the next battle.”

* * *

Rock pillars shot out at both Coco and Leon who were dodging them to the best of their abilities in a dark tunnel. Beatrice’s control of earth made her practically invincible underground except for one problem: sight. She couldn’t see them in a dark tunnel. That is why Candela was there. She would throw stones which ended up glowing. Her homing power would tell them the direction of the boys.

“We need to take out Candela,” huffed Coco.

“I have a plan, but you’re not going to like it,” said Leon.

The girls were trailing behind them. Candela had thrown another homing rock at the two. After seeing their shadows, Beatrice had struck the wall again. Someone grunted. 

“That wasn’t Coco,” said Beatrice.

“Good, only one left,” said Candela.

“Look out!” A tendril of water shot between the girls. It promptly retreated and formed a second water ring around Coco.

“Where did you get that water?” Beatrice said rather impressed.

“This place has a ton of water pipes. It’s been really useful keeping your rocks away from me,” said Coco. Quick jabs through the ice forced the separation of the girls. Then Coco rode the wave formed by the water to focus solely on Beatrice. Beatrice tried to erupt another rock pillar at Coco who smashed it with the sheer force of the water.

Candela looked to Coco who kept full control of the situation. She lost enough hair just by Coco getting too close for comfort. Instead, she looked to someone else who was currently on the ground. She grabbed the rope to tie him up.

“Sorry, but I win,” said Candela.

“That’s what you think.” Leon raised his hand and sprayed out the violet poison right in Candela’s face. She reeled back, trying to free her eyes of the poison. Leon wasn’t of her concern. Instead, she saw a swarm of bees flying directly for her!

“Getawaygetawaygetaway!” she screamed as she ran as fast as she could towards the other end of the tunnel. She, however, missed a turn and slammed right into the wall.

* * *

“I’m sure that’s a war crime,” said Reed.

“Well, war crimes need to be updated to account for powers,” Marshal said as he continued to scribble away in his notebook, “I’ve probably done things that can be considered war crimes when fighting against Spyricans.”

Reed looked terrified at Marshal. “You fought against them?” He knew all too well of the planet who had attacked Earth. In fact, he had passed by the planet of Spyre in the shuttle accident that gave the Fantastic Four their powers. He never expected them to rapidly develop a militaristic culture and invade Earth.

“Sadly, not everyone lives in an area with so many experienced superheroes.” Marshal snapped his pencil. He then casually grabbed another one. “My master’s dream is for hero teams to exist in every state and prevent more partisans like us. This program is just the beginning.”

Reed decided to close his mouth and watch for the next battle.

* * *

“This place is really creepy.” Rachel had the constant sensation of cobwebs on her skin. It wasn’t entirely unmerited either since she was going through an abandoned hospital. On the walls were slots cut out for holding corpses as if this was a morgue, all illuminated by dim light. Of course, Marshal would make an abandoned hospital even creepier.

“I try not to think about it,” Mika said. She was trying to not to think about the cobwebs on her skin or the skeletons or the curses or the dimly lit areas which -- “Ah!” Mika shrieked when she heard something hit the ground. Then something else made both girls’ skins crawl.

“That’s your plan?” Alex exasperated. Neither girls could see him, but they certainly heard the annoyance in his voice.

“Defeating your enemy by taking their clothes is a legitimate strategy,” said Griff, who both girls had the burning desire to flay alive. He was holding two pairs of shorts in his hand.

“The heck is wrong with you?”

“It’s not the nudity that makes it embarrassing. Girls don’t get embarrassed when they’re wearing nearly nothing on a beach. It’s whether they want to be put on display that makes it embarrassing,” Griff explained. He looked back at the girls. “Oh come on, shorts under shor--”

“Die!” A bolt of lightning flew towards Griff who teleported. The walls blew and created a perfect smokescreen for Alex. Now, it was his turn to --

“We’re not done with you.” Rachel waved her hand and simply blasted wind to disperse the dust. 

Alex touched as much of the wall pieces as he could. After every touch, the pieces would fly towards the girls. The girls were able to break the debris pretty easily.

“Griff, would be a nice time for a plan that doesn’t involve stripping them naked.”

“Too late!” Griff dropped down on the girls only to end up being blasted by lightning and thrown on the ground.

“Nice try, pervert,” Mika said with a smirk. 

“Thanks Griff.” Alex had his opening now. While the girls were being distracted, Alex tapped both of them on the shoulders and trapped them on the ceiling.

* * *

“What a ridiculous strategy,” Reed scoffed.

“Well, defeat by modesty is a thing,” said Marshal, “It’s especially useful for managing suicide vests.”

Reed shook his head. “How do you even know that?” 

“I know a guy. Do you honestly think I actually did that?” Marshal chuckled, “You’re giving me too much credit.” He looked back at the holo-screen. “It looks like we’re in for flag grab. Let the games begin.”

_ No, _ Reed thought,  _ They end. _

The pair watched as Franklin made his way down the 113 stairs into the catacombs. Bones piled high on either side of him. As he ventured deep into the endless rows of ossuaries, the flag stood in the center of an octagonal room which had three more exits. Franklin stood right outside.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Notes on the kids:  
> \- Kaelynn has fire powers based on the aforementioned Tweet from Zub(?) over her being a future Captain Marvel.  
> \- Maggie getting lycanthrope was honestly a random power listing, but it works. She's a genius in the Future Foundation who lets loose as a savage beast.  
> \- Danielle's powers were mind control like the Purple Man. They were changed to be at least interesting.  
> \- Candela is hard to write, so we made her be as plain as possible.  
> \- Griff is based on Richie Tozier. The teleporting power was taken from another teleporting pervert, Kuroko.  
> \- Coco is based on the overachiever in your class who is dirty and underhanded. You know the one. AKA, he's based on Ghost.  
> \- Hisako is basically her comic counterpart except 12.  
> \- Kei comes into play next chapter.  
> \- Cor is supposed to be super emo, but we'll see that in future chapter.s  
> \- Leon Manh was originally named Leon Van Nguyen, but I made him Karma's nephew. It hurts a lot because Xi'an Coy Manh doesn't sound Vietnamese at all except for the manh which means strong or forceful.  
> \- Theo's touch is referenced in the past, but he's based on a poison dart frog.  
> \- Mika is Mikoto Misaka. Nuff said.  
> \- Alex takes more from his All Ages than he does his 616 counterpart.  
> \- Franklin and Valeria will be dealt with next chapter  
> \- Satoshi is Ash Ketchum, nuff said.  
> \- Henry is the no nothing know it all every class has. He's more amusing as the kill-stealer than his original characterization.  
> \- Beatrice/Jiang was originally going to have more ethereal powers since Jiang Xie looks a lot like jiangshi.
> 
> Other:  
> \- The "We should do something" bit comes from Linkara's Countdown review  
> \- The comments from defeating by modesty actually came from a real conversation I, Dark, had with a friend. It was strange.


	7. Franklin vs. Valeria

_ Stick to the plan. _

When Franklin walked into the catacombs, they were empty. A flag was sitting atop a stack of bones.  _ She would never make it this easy. _ The moment he saw green light, Franklin ducked away. Scratches appeared on his face where bone fragments had grazed him. “I knew you would be happy to see me,” Franklin taunted. It was a weak one at best. His voice shook.

“Useless,” growled Valeria, “How did you cheat your way in here?”

“I actually earned my place here,” Franklin fired back, “Unlike you who got a test outline from Dad. Now, who’s the cheater here?”

Grunts escaped Valeria who was like a covered pot of boiling water. Any moment could be her breaking point. Franklin probably didn’t know what he said since his mind is clouded with so much fear he was channeling into his own rage.

Glowing palms were thrusted out. Unlike anyone else, Franklin dove into the attack. Raising his right arm he threw out a middle block. Once Valeria’s attack fired, she was thrown into the wall. 

Valeria saw Franklin take off into one of the tunnels. “No, you’re not going to leave, defect!” She fired her blasts into the wall and pursued him into the tunnel. She had caught up to him no doubt, mere feet away. “Defect! Come here and face me!” A flash of green light missed Franklin’s head.

_ That’s the point. She’s going to collapse the tunnel. _ As he fanned away dust from the cave in from his face, Valeria fired three more shots at him.  _ Guess this will do. _

“You’re trembling. Deep down, you know you don’t belong here. There is no place for a useless defect like you in this world except for the scrap heap.” Valeria attempted to fire another blast at him from close range. Franklin touched the wall and created ice to take the blast. More cuts appeared on his arm, but several shards made Val’s face bleed.

_ I can’t beat her with my powers. But I know hers better than anyone. _ Franklin winced at the constant reminders of being blasted by her powers.  _ No, I need to stay strong. I can beat her. _

“What are we waiting for?” Franklin slammed the ground and ice immediately shot up towards Valeria. A flash of green erupted from her hands and threw Franklin into the wall. Valeria leaped toward her brother and attempted to hit him with another shot, at point blank range once more. Franklin ducked and rolled out of the way. Almost immediately, he spotted her and got in close.

“No, I won’t lose to a defective product like you!” Valeria fired in Franklin’s direction randomly, not caring about managing the force behind her power. “You’ll leave here one way or another.”  _ His mind is weak. His body is weak. Why does he keep fighting? _

Franklin had thrown up an ice wall to blunt the momentum of her attack barrage. Frost and condensation formed on the walls as the temperature dropped from the constant ice formation. Franklin’s own arms were frosted over. 

The constant ice explosions had forced Valeria to the ground and made distance between the siblings. 

Valeria had made it back to her feet, both of her hands glowing, her eyes ablaze with determination. Franklin decided to keep low to the ground enough to at least touch it. Her made his way towards her in a curved path to dodged the green blasts which cratered the floor. One was right before his eyes when he slammed the ground and closed his eyes. 

Valeria coughed up some of the slush and ice.  _ He’s faster than I thought. _

Valeria raised her left hand into a punch.  _ That’s a fake. She’s right-handed. _ Franklin moved towards the left hand as she threw the real punch which provided the perfect dodge and strike opportunity. He struck her with a sidekick and forced some distance between them.

Then he charged for her. Valeria slid out of the way. “I’m going to do what Mom and Dad should have done a long time ago.” A flash of green threw Franklin further into the tunnel.

“Give up, Useless,” said Valeria, “You’re never going to win.”

Franklin stood up and looked at what took the brunt of the blast. Three fingers on his left hand were broken: the thumb, the index, and the middle. If adrenaline wasn’t running through his body, he would be wailing in pain. Instead, he just laughed. Valeria lowered her arms. “That may have worked with me a year or two years ago. Guess what? It’s not gonna work. Not now. Not ever again!”

He slammed the ground with his free hand and created a line of frozen spikes which were headed towards Valera.  _ Arrgh, everywhere but the broken fingers is hurting. I still need to keep moving forward. _

“Pathetic.” Ice soon rained through the tunnel as another one of Valeria’s blasts went through the ice and struck Franklin who fell against the collapsed tunnel. He charged for Valeria once more, going behind her. She fired a blast at him which threw him towards the entrance to the octagonal room.

Valeria then dove towards him. She rarely showed emotion outside of scowling and only seemed to smile except for the one she faked when talking to the press. She had no press here. Her smile illuminated by the glow of her hand was as genuine as can be. She reveled in the fear in her brother’s face.  _ If I time this just right, I should -- yes!  _ In a surprising and daring turn of events, Franklin leaped towards his sister and attempted to tackle her midair. Freezing his hand with the broken fingers, he used it to punch Valeria directly in the stomach.  _ Lower the temperature and create more ice. _

Almost immediately, Valeria had blasted Franklin away. She, however, began to see her own breath. This was when her heart started racing.  _ Has this thing figured it out yet? That is impossible. There is no way he could … unless he was paying attention to …  _ Valeria was unable to dodge the kick thrown at her by Franklin.

She was shivering. There was no doubt about it. She looked at her hands and saw the green glow fade. She could barely muster up any power. 

_ With that gamble, she’s losing her powers just like I expected … but …  _ Franklin looked at his hands  _ I only have three fingers left.  _ Franklin’s left side took the brunt of his sister’s attack. His arm was basically useless as she shattered his radius and ulna into bits. The fingers were even worse since only his thumb seems to be intact. 

Valeria was charging for him, hands with a flickering glow. The only thing he could see in her eyes was murder. “You die here!”

_ Here it goes!  _ He was able to muster up the will power to raise both his arms despite the heavy damage they sustained. Slamming the ground, Several thick spikes of ice erupted from the ground as frost began to cover the walls. Soon, an ice barrier separated Franklin and Valeria.  _ Keep dropping the temperature. Don’t let her through! _

As the ice wall expanded, Valeria began turning blue.  _ No.  _ She tried to create more than green sparks, but it was in vain.  _ No. No. No. _

In the flag room, Franklin collapsed. His body was covered in ice and half frozen blood. He was on the ground, huffing out more condensed water. Kei had the flag in hand and ran to his side. 

“Dude, you need a doctor,” said Kei.

“No,” Franklin weakly huffed, “I’m not gonna die here. Win the game. Get back to base. Just win. Don’t even think about me.”

“I’m gonna let Master know where you are,” Kei said, “He has portals. He can probably get you out of this mess.”

Behind the two of them, a dark portal appeared. “I’ll handle the Richards siblings.”

* * *

“I got it!” Kei yelled as he got back to the boys base. Just in time, too. Hisako and Maggie had grabbed the flag from Tyler’s hands. 

“She lost?” Maggie froze.  _ No, Val doesn’t lose. She never loses. That’s impossible. _

“Could be an illusion power,” said Hisako.

“Nope.” Kei shook his head. “This is 100% real. We don’t get to be eliminated!” A portal opened right in the middle of the base.

“I can confirm,” Marshal said, “It’s real. If you want to see the control room footage, which I will release to you for future reference, I can direct you to the camera and timestamp Now, we need to talk.” After that, Marshal stepped out of the portal. He began to alter the portal’s properties to gather the remaining students one-by-one. 

Many were red in the face, their skin shining from sweat. Marshal paced before the twenty. Their eyes followed him. Marshal then stopped. “Now is the part where I expel the ones who didn’t meet my expectations. You know who you are.” Many blinked. Others shook in fear. Hearts beat against the ribcage. If Marshal continues to stall, then several people will be going as bodies after chestbursters have done their duty.

“None of you,” Marshal said.

“Phew, so it was just a trick to get us to do our best,” Rachel surmised.

“Actually, no,” deadpanned Marshal, 

“What?” exclaimed everyone who was reasonably upset at having the fear of expulsion thrown upon them on the first day.

“So you were deliberately going to expel one of us but saw potential in all of us?”

“Precisely,” said Marshal, “All of you are lucky that I see the seeds of a hero in all of you. Get changed. You are dismissed.” Marshal opened a portal to the gym where the kids promptly took off for their changing rooms. As the last child left, Marshal turned to Mr. Fantastic. “I have a few questions about your children.”

“What kind of questions?” said Reed.

* * *

The boys were in the showers after their escapades. Thankfully, the boys each had individual stalls where they could have some level of privacy. There were two rows of showers with a walkway in the middle. As the waters ran, all of them ended up making small talk with those around them.

“How exactly did we win again?” Alex asked, “Did it all go according to plan?”

“Mostly,” Franklin said, “I didn’t bank on Valeria breaking most of my fingers.”

“That Valeria girl sounds brutal,” said Kei, “No offense, but I’m glad that I didn’t hafta fight her.”

“She’s my sister, so I already knew a bit about her fighting style.” The input from Alex and Kei suddenly stopped cold. Even amid the sound of rushing water, Franklin was sure silence broke out suddenly.

“Wait, that girl who shot everyone who tried to talk to her in the lounge is your crazy sister?” said Alex, “Sorry, but she’s a jerk.”

“Is that why you were so jittery this morning when you saw her?” said Coco who was in the walkway with a bag in hand. He handed it to someone in a stall which was currently not running water. The tuft of brown hair made it obvious that it was Henry. “Now that makes more sense. I just thought you liked her.” He gagged at the very utterance of what he just said. “Okay, now that I say that, it just sounds so sick and wrong.”

“Hehe,” Franklin laughed weakly.  _ I’m dead when I get home. I’m dead with the X-Men. What if she tries to kill me in the middle of the night? I’m already short. I can’t afford to lose sleep like -- _

“Franklin,” said Alex, “Is she like that at home?”

“Not really. Most of the time she just sits and works. I’m not even sure she knows we're siblings sometimes.” 

“I thought, you know, your dynamic would be a bit less, I don’t know, enthusiastic to break each other’s bones,” Alex said, “I mean, my siblings don’t do that with me even with their powers. They want to whenever I do something stupid, but they don’t.”

_ Another person with super siblings.  _ “What do you do with them?”

“Oh, little pranks,” said Alex, “One time, I used my gravity powers to rearrange our room to maximize space for me. The worst thing I think we’ve ever done was that time my sister used her speed to pants me in front of some cheerleaders.”

Franklin laughed. “Why would she do that?”

If Alex was wearing a shirt, he would be pulling the collar. “I may or may not have gotten us grounded by not telling our parents we have superpowers earlier than we did. She got mad at me because she couldn’t go to the library. We could only be at school and home. She decided to tear off my pants in front of cheerleaders.”

After this, Franklin stopped the shower and grabbed his towel. “Wow, the library must be serious business for her.”

Alex groaned. “You have no idea.”

“Speaking of girls, that friend of yours,” said Coco.

“What about her?”

“Is she a blue blood?” 

“A what?”

“Blue blood?” Coco pulled out his phone and held it up to Franklin’s stall. Franklin covered himself despite Coco’s hand being over the camera. He wasn’t particularly trusting with modern security technology. “Related to previous or current superheroes.” He showed Franklin the image that he was familiar with. It was the X-Men confronting a rogue Sentinel under Ultron’s control. At the center was Jean Grey with a phoenix aura out. “She looks a lot like Phoenix.”

“We get internet here?”

“Don’t dodge the question.” Wow, that was blunt.

Franklin sighed as he walked out. “You’ll find out sooner or later. Yes.”

“I knew it!” said Coco.

“She’s not the only one.”

“Huh?” 

“You mean there’s more super relatives?” said Alex. Franklin could practically see the stars shooting out of his eyes as he edged at the stall. The stall door only went up to their shoulders give or take. Alex was already at the edge of the translucent material.

“In this room? There’s Leon who’s Karma’s nephew.”

“Did someone call me?” Leon was already fully dressed and about to leave the locker room. 

“You’re Karma’s nephew,” Franklin said, “We’re talking about blue bloods. Oh, and I’m also one.”

“Wait,” Alex said, “Isn’t Valeria also the name of … oh … Oh … OH!”

“You’re Mr. Fantastic’s son.” Coco was dead silent. Meanwhile, someone else pulled up to the glass.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Theo looked outright betrayed.

“I couldn’t,” said Franklin, “My parents didn’t want to have a valuable hostage crisis every other Wednesday, so they told me to never tell anyone about this because they might be related to supervillains and kidnap me. But now, we’re all training to be heroes, so that doesn’t matter. I can fight. Besides, I don’t like talking about it.”

“So,” Alex coughed, “Are there any other super relatives here?”

“Maggie Braddock is next in line for Captain Britain’s title. Not really that hard. She speaks in an RP only old people speak in. Danielle Cage is a bit harder since no one really knows street level heroes like her parents. Her powers are also crazy different from theirs, like really different.”

“So how many of you got in through nepotism?” Alex’s showerhead began spraying water on Henry. The distance it went obviously meant Coco had changed its direction and force since the showers would normally never reach the distance it reached. “And I just got done changing, too.”

“Probably only me,” Franklin sighed, “I didn’t score a single point and I got in.”

“Don’t say that,” Theo said, “I got in and I was sitting in the bottom five percent.”

“Yeah, but you actually got points,” said Franklin.

“Well, they must have seen something in you,” said Coco, “Numbers without context aren’t everything. It’s probably because you make great plans. Today’s victory came because your plan worked … ish. We still nearly got ours stolen, but whatever, a win’s a win.”

“I guess you’re right,” said Franklin.

* * *

Likewise, the girls were changing in their locker room. Unlike the boys who were relaxing, there was an awful lot of sighing in the room.

Beatrice handed Rachel a bag. “Marshal told me to give this to you.”

Sure enough, Rachel saw her shirt and shorts Griff took from her earlier. “Thanks.”

“I get wearing the second shirt but why the second pair of shorts?”

“Modesty,” said Rachel, “I’m pretty active in this dress.” Said dress was what Rachel pulled on.

“Gotcha.”

“Tell me about it,” Mika interjected, “I can’t tell you how many times I kicked a vending machine and had people comment on my shorts.”

“What did the vending machines do to you?” Beatrice questioned. She only thought that was an anime thing, but nope, kicking a vending machine was a thing.

“Nothing,” said Mika, “I just like extorting drinks out of them.”

“You can probably fry drinks out of them with your lightning,” Beatrice pointed out. She was not the only girl making anime connections in her head while not actually saying them aloud.

“I’m not that skilled with it,” said Mika, “So where are you two from?”

“Annandale on Hudson, New York,” said Rachel. Not technically a like on her part.

“Cardinal Hollow, Virginia,” said Beatrice. Everyone just looked at her in confusion. At least there was a university where Rachel said she was from. “Yeah, no one’s heard of where we are. Even our sister city, Dogwood Grove, has some action with the exploding antimatter reactor.”

“Scarsdale, New York,” said Mika, “The only thing famous about Scarsdale is the girl who runs the chemical plant. Nothing about having a sister city with antimatter.”

“Yeah, it was all over the news in May,” said Beatrice, “So you two, what’s it like living near so many heroes?”

“A villain attack or alien invasion every other Wednesday,” Danielle chimed in quietly.

“Yeah, I sort of expect villains to pop up pretty often,” said Rachel.

“It’s annoying when the trains get stopped because of them,” Mika added.

Beatrice sat down on the bench to tie her shoes. “It’s honestly amazing how many supers exist in the world, but so many end up being people we know.”

Rachel giggled. “Right Maggie and Dani?”

“Oh,” said Mika, “You three know each other.”

“You could say that,” Danielle said softly, “I know Franklin more.” She almost immediately covered her mouth and turned her head towards Valeria. Valeria’s movements were not natural now. Instead, they were jerky, as if she was breaking rigor mortis like some zombie.

“Franklin,” Valeria hissed.

“Uh oh.”

In his office, Marshal closed his dossier at the rumbling sound. Under normal circumstances, he would take a stance and lift a bunch of rocks. Now, he shook his head. Boys and girls were running barely dressed from the locker rooms as green light covered the entire gym. 

_ This class needs a lot of work. _

He held his head. 

_ And I’m going to need some aspirin. _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dark's notes  
> \- Franklin's fight with Valeria is toned down from the original. As much as I would like to see them do fancy flips and flying kicks, this is the first day. I didn't want to make them too skilled.  
> -I based the fight on the question "What would happen if robotics teams actually fought each other?" Don't underestimate how violent and chaotic VEX and FIRST competitions can get. I remember seeing people break out in dance over winning and nearly strangle each other over losing.  
> \- Coco's line about incest is based on how people found out that the girl who looks nothing like me is actually related to me and how I had no desire for first cousin incest.


	8. Work to Do

_ We had put Franklin in Marshal’s class because we thought he would fall victim to Marshal’s brutality quickly. I fear we may have made a mistake. Marshal is undoubtedly not expelling anyone in this class. If Tuesday is any indication, Marshal intends to make them heroes or kill them in the process. I fear Franklin will not give up as quickly as we expected. In the worst case scenario, he will outlast Valeria. _

  * Excerpt from Invisible Woman’s Secret Report #1



For Tuesday, the kids were not in the gym. Instead, they were on the race track. Sitting in the bleachers, Marshal stood in front of them wearing a whistle and holding a clipboard like any coach would. 

“Today,” he said, “You will be running a mile.”

“Yes!” Tyler shouted. Everyone grumbled. He had the advantage with superspeed and all.

“You will be running a mile in different conditions.” They were standing on a standard racing track. Marshal stomped forward. Several hills began to rise around the track. Then he fired several chunks of ice into the air and several bursts of flame followed to wet some of the hills. “You have your basic asphalt track here, then the dry hills, the muddy hills, dusty hills, and then that mountain over there,” Marshal said, “And all of you will by the end of this week run a mile on these race tracks in under five minutes.”

“Huh?”

“What?”

“Are you serious?” 

“Is that even legal?”

“We’re just kids! You can’t expect us to do that!”

“That’s impossible! No one’s that good.”

“Then when you do it with your powers, I expect either an equal or lower time. Now, let’s begin.” Marshal flicked his finger into the air and let out a massive blast of wind. The students looked on in awe. “Get to it. Get to it. We don’t have all day. We still need to get powered and non-powered combat training in this week as well.”

The track was easy. The hills were harder but doable.

When it got to the muddy hills, we’ll use Tyler’s input.

“This is easy!” Tyler screamed. The moment the muddy hill track began, he slipped forward and slammed face first into the mud. All nineteen people behind him were immediately splashed in dirt. Yes, the speedster ended up eating the dirt.

“We’re dead,” said everyone.

As if to insult his students, Marshal ran with them without exerting much effort even while yelling at them to “Keep moving!” He wasn’t just running. No, he was running backwards while being ahead of them the entire time, even on terrain which

The Invisible Woman, meanwhile, watched from above on an invisible platform. She would expect Marshal to be unable to hear her. Obviously, he couldn’t see her. With the wind in his ears, she expected him to be too deafened to hear her pencil striking her notebook. All it took was him to look slightly back to realize that her cover was compromised.

By the end of the day, the person you would expect to get the best time ended up having a much worse average time than his classmates. The muddy hills were a pain for Tyler since he spent most of his time in the mud since it was so slippery. Misery loves company since everyone else spent enough time in the dirt over the course of the week running and sparring.

By the end of the week, everyone needed a replacement pair of shoes since theirs were obviously worn out from all the heavy activity.

In the boys’ locker room, everyone was using the benches as beds. Some had come in late and used the floors instead. Franklin had turned a section of the ground into powdered snow in order to cool off from being cooked by the (artificial) sun and by his own body working so hard.

“Pham,” he huffed, “Is … trying … to … kill … us … ”

“Everything hurts!”

Most people would find these statements to be melodramatic or would roll their eyes and make a comment about how hero work is supposed to hurt. Nope. It was absolutely reasonable to whine and moan when your collective sweat was making the air in the locker room more humid than a city next to a river in the middle of summer. It didn’t help that mist was already present from the opaque ice wall with caution tape on it after Valeria’s prior meltdown. It was a cold and humid mess, a match made in the ninth circle right there.

Coco, had used his water supply to quench his thirst, took five or six deep breaths, and said, “Yeah, I can believe that.”

“Are you kidding? I thought this week was great.” Twenty eyes were on Satoshi. The eleventh boy shook his head. “You people. Ever run a mile in like four minutes? I didn’t think it was possible until Pham taught us.”

“Toshi,” said Coco, “There are better ways than … this.” After another deep breath, he said, “So anyways, what crap do you think he’ll pull next week?”

“Well … ” Alex reached into his locker and pulled out a schedule. “Says here Master Pham wants us to break out into pairs and work on our powers.”

“Do you think he’s choosing the pairs or are we?” Franklin got up off the bench. 

“Probably him,” said Alex, “Man, I just hate explaining to my parents why I come home so sore.”

“I bet it’s because they didn’t raise a son to be a bottom!” Coco rolled his eyes at Griff.

“I can’t believe my parents let me go to this camp,” said Kei, “I mean, I know why, but --”

“What are you doing?” Franklin looked at Griff who had brought a hammer and chisel to the camp to chip away at the ice wall.

“What does it look like, genius?” said Griff, “I’m trying to peep on the girls.”

“Disgraceful,” scolded Theo, “You can’t just peep in on the girls like that. Where’s your dignity?”

“Hon hon. You’ll see my dignity when I’m done,” Griff said in an exaggerated French accent, “I have a little something called a hammer and a chisel. I saw one of the girls is wearing a pink bra. Now, I need to see what what’s her face’s chest actually looks like.” It took one strike of the wall for the wall to actually expand and freeze Griff.

Coco laughed a bit. “You were saying?” Franklin stood on the corner, red in the face from containing his own laughter. This was one thing he would certainly be grateful for.

“Uh, can someone help me down?” Griff was shivering in the ice.

“Haha, nope,” said Coco as he began walking out of the locker room, “if you want anything to eat, clap your hands.”

“F-fuck you,” Griff shivered. It was so considerate of the ice to give him enough room to do so.

“You offering? Sorry, I don’t want to have a mediocre time.” I would say apply ice to burn, but I’m sure Griff has enough of that. The boys then took off and left Griff on the wall. 

Meanwhile, on the girls’ side of the wall.

“What is it, Wolfie?” Rachel said to Maggie. She was listening on the piece of wall that wasn’t ice.

“Boys are so gross,” said Maggie, “Oh, the perverted one is now frozen to the wall.”

“Well, I guess that solves everything,” Rachel said, “Who wants lunch?”

After all they did, eating was in their best interest. However, not many of them had the energy to eat. They burned up the energy they had left merely getting food in the first place. What can only be described as a bunch of kids staring at food on the table was present.

“Why did we get food if we’re not going to eat?” Theo questioned. “It’s disgraceful to let it go to waste.”

“We know,” Franklin said, “Just give us a few minutes.” Honestly, cold food sounded so good compared to what happened this week.

* * *

“Today, I’m going to let you have some fun.” The kids weren’t standing in a gym, track, or simulated environment like they were for the past week. Sure, they were still in uniform, but they weren’t anywhere near any place which would require them to wear it.

“You’re going to tie us to poles and have us stabbed with bayonets?” Mika wheezed.

“That’s only reserved for traitors to the Initiative along with being pressed alive with a force of 6000 megapascals as you howl for mercy like a dying wolf.” That was too specific for him to be joking. “Instead, you’ll be designing costumes. You will be meeting with a designer of your choice. From there, you will be working on a costume. The first rule of any good costume is practicality. You might want to ask about battle gear to compliment your powers or limit their destructive potential on you. The second rule is to make it uniquely yours. Now, go.”

* * *

Franklin was a bit shaky when he walked into the cancerous room and saw only one person in it. The Department of Battle Gear and Costumes was not dominated by the blocky, or rather blocky, nature of the more mundane parts of the camp like the lounges or the gyms. Instead, they were massive and hollow with unfinished costumes being kept in cylindrical tubes lining the curved walls.

“Oh, you’re here,” said the boy wearing an oddly familiar indigo armor, “You’re … Franklin, right?”

Franklin gulped and nodded his head. “Yeah. You’re Master --”

He put his hand up to him. “Don’t call me master. Just Hiro would be fine.”

“Wait so you’re a superhero and your name is Hiro?” This elicited an eyeroll.

“Like I haven’t heard that one 3000 times.”

“Sorry.”

“It’s fine.” He picked up a device which looks like a barcode scanner. “Okay, so I need to stand still. This thing will create something akin to a wooden puppet based on height, weight, and body shape which we can dress up.” Hiro was obviously reading off a script. “Legal reasons. We don’t want anyone believing that we’re taking scans of some twelve-year-old to make child porn out of it.”

“That sounds like something a genius with too much time and not enough money would do.” Franklin honestly wondered if the Future Foundation would do such a thing.  _ Well, they probably wouldn’t care where they got their funding research from. _

“Head up please,” said Hiro. When the scan was complete, a wood puppet hologram appeared next to Hiro. “Okay, now we get to designing.” Several other holograms, pre-made parts like capes and armor, began to surround them. “Okay, Franklin, take your pick. You have ice powers, right? Well, I can help you make a few adjustments to the costume. Like, are you immune to the cold? Can you only fire ice out of your hands?”

* * *

Overall, Franklin chose a costume which was rather simplistic. It was a white suit which was among the rejected uniform designs he had made for the Future Foundation. At the center were three hexagons because according to young Franklin “everything is more sciency” with hexagons. Of course, he needed to hide his identity, so he went with a white cape with a hood.

“Do you two coordinate designs or something?” Alex joked with Franklin and Rachel.

Indeed, she had chosen a similar design albeit with less black and white and more yellow and green. In addition, her cape seemed to be made of burlap.

“Guess we’re that close,” chuckled Rachel. She looked at Franklin for a moment and recognized the design.

After all the other kids got out of their design sessions, they lined up in the gym. “Alright,” said Marshal, “It’s time to test out your costumes. You will be seeing them in action on Wednesday. Your test will be given by the Fantastic Four themselves.”

“You taught us to run a mile in under four minutes,” said Satoshi, who was ever the optimist, “We’re ready!”

“No we’re not!” the rest of the class bellowed.

“You will be,” said Marshal, “I was going to have you duel each other, but now, I want to fight you myself and advise you. Sign up for a time, and I’ll meet you right here.”

* * *

“Seriously, what is this test going to be about? It can’t be anything too major. That wouldn’t make sense. We haven’t done any rescue work, so that definitely doesn’t make sense. I say it would be combat training, but we’ve been tested out the door by Master Pham, and my parents are definitely the type to put things on the test that were never --”

“Franklin,” Rachel interjected, “You’re rambling again.” The pair were at the bathroom sink. She was almost tempted to simply shove his toothbrush in his mouth to stop the rambling, but she also wanted to know what he had to say. 

“Sorry,” he said sheepishly.

“Hey, whatever they throw at us, we’re ready,” Rachel said, “Besides, Master Pham taught us … pretty well for a week and two days. We’ll be ready for this. I felt like crap Monday, but I think we’ll survive.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ghost's Notes  
> \- Yes, that is indeed Hiro Hamada from Disney's Big Hero 6 as a costume designer. He's probably doing it to make cash since he can't botfight anymore.  
> \- Pay attention to Marshal's oddly specific statement.  
> \- Marshal, as you may know, has a lot of powers. Struggling with them makes him the perfect candidate for teaching classes of heroes.


	9. The Disappeared

#  Arc 3 | Examination

During the lunch meeting, the Fantastic Four are scheduled to meet the main instructors for the beginner levels: Marshal Pham, Guadalupe Espinosa, Chandra Rao, and Lao Li. The conference room was lit by dim light, a hangover of someone not turning off the projector.

“I’m sorry for the rather impromptu meeting, but there is something we need to discuss,” said Reed, “The classes.”

“We decided that we are the ones who will be proctoring the tests, not you, starting this Wednesday,” said Sue.

“Yeah,” said Lao, “We all got the memo.” 

“What led to this decision,” questioned Chandra. 

“Excuse me?” said Sue.

“We had an entire year in a dimension where time is meaningless. Some recent development must have prompted this,” added Lupe.

“Also, none of the other instructors for the intermediate level or the advanced level said anything about this,” said Lao, “So this is your call.”

“The performances were … not as promising as we hoped,” said Reed.

It was silently agreed upon that Marshal would ask the probing question. “How much of our lesson plans will we need to change?”

“Lesson plans?” Sue said.

“That class schedule I said was insanely cruel,” said Johnny. Leave it to the least responsible member of the Fantastic Four to have the most sense when it came to reading documentation. 

“I don’t think I could have done what they’re doing at their age. It’s worse than the Air Force training,” Ben added.

“Maybe you could have read over our plans when you were spying on us all last week.” The room grew cold at Marshal’s remark.

“You knew?” said Reed.

“We didn’t get our positions by being absent minded,” said Chandra, “When I summoned a pack of wolves, they smelled soot from an incomplete combustion.” The dig at Reed’s absent minded professor nature was honestly the deeper cut. 

“Specifically, you took interest in my class,” said Marshal, “The one with your son and daughter in it. So I take it your spying is because you don’t trust us, or is it something else?”

“We are just … concerned about how harsh your methods were,” said Sue.

“A likely story,” Marshal scoffed, “It only took you one week of spying to question our harshness. Something else prompted this.” Marshal stared at Reed who was ready to return fire. 

“Actually, Wei,” said Lao, “This actually could be a good thing. We don’t get to take responsibility in the slightest for their failures.”

Chandra cleared her voice. “Right, we wouldn’t need to take responsibility for students who die in the field for field training later this summer.”

“And we want weekly briefings just like this one. Any notes you take, and you will take notes, will be surrendered to us.” Guadalupe just wanted to see how far he can push the envelope with being unreasonable.

“So long as you don’t observe testing, we have a deal,” Reed said.

From there, the meeting was adjourned. The four walked towards the furthest gym from the conference room. Marshal pulled out four wooden dummies and proceeded to beat down on one of them.

“They’re up to something,” Marshal said as the dummy broke against his fists. “No one changes plans like that unless you have an agenda, especially in this dimension.”

“Well,” Chandra sighed, “I guess we’ll need to wait and see.”

“You know, I’m new to this whole leader politics thing,” said Lao, “But isn’t this, you know, really bad for the Fantastic Four to do this to us?”

“Indeed,” said Marshal, “I expect sloppiness from a regular school administration, not this.”

* * *

Camp Hammond is large enough to necessitate trains to move people across the campus. Gathered in front of the central terminal was Marshal and his class who were waiting for the train to take them to their testing site.

“Today is the day all of you succeed,” Marshal said bluntly.

“How do you know that for sure?” questioned Coco.

“Because I’ve seen you train. This might be the first test, but I know it will not be your last,” said Marshal, “Reed and Sue seek to expel one of you by using a demerit testing system. They will not succeed, not with a group like you. I have yet to expel one of you since I see the embers of heroes. You proved you were worthy of being here to me. Now, prove it to them, people who don’t believe you should even be here. I look forward to seeing you back here once the test is over.”

On the train, the kids took their seats. It was honestly much more spacious on the inside since this dream realm didn’t exactly obey all the laws of physics. Then again, superheroes regularly ignore them. After using the master bathroom-sized bathroom in the car, they began to talk about petty things like … 

“You idiot,” groaned Kei, “You can’t just declare that non-canon. It’s part of the series whether you want to or not.”

“Ha, Death of the Author says I can!” Henry fired back.

“Death of the Author doesn’t give you the right to start cutting letters out to make a new story like a villain does with a ransom note,” Kei argued, “That’s fundamentally changing the text, not making a new interpretation.”

“Idiots!” Valeria fired three emerald blasts through the train car. It missed several people by mere hairs.

“Are you sick in the head,” Rachel snarled at her.

“I don’t need to explain myself to  _ lesser _ rodents like you,” she sneered before falling back into her seat.

“Lesser rodents?” Rachel tried to get up and hurl Valeria out of a moving train, but the boys flanking her, Franklin and Alex, immediately stepped in to prevent it. Valeria got up only to be grabbed by Maggie who was in partial wolf form and was ready to go into full werewolf form if it meant restraining her. Meanwhile, Theo got up between the girls.

“I cannot allow you to fight and destroy camp property and your fellow classmates,” Theo shouted.

_ We’re all expelled if Mom and Dad saw this.  _ “Ruby, please don’t. I don’t want to die or worse get expelled.”

Rachel stopped and turned to Franklin. “Wait, how would getting expelled be worse than dying?” 

“Why have I never noticed he calls you Ruby before,” Hisako said, “Hey, let’s discuss our hero names.”

“Like, right now … we’re not heroes yet,” said Alex.

“Right, but who doesn’t get a hero name before they become a hero? It’s like studying for a test less than 2 weeks in advance,” said Theo.

“I’m pretty sure all of us do that only for entrance exams,” said Franklin, “Like, who crams for tests rather than study in advance?” More than enough hands went up.

Theo dramatically gasped. If he wasn’t a hero, he would be an amazing stage actor.

“Jokes on all of you. I already have a hero name,” Kei said, “I got it during the Leviathan Tide. Kid Kaiju!”

“What happens when your balls drop,” Griff snickered.

“I’ll burn that bridge when I cross it,” Kei said, “So, what’s your hero name, funny guy?” Kei’s eyes bulged over what he just said.

“It’s --” Alex and Coco immediately tackled him and covered his mouth.

“We will not have you befowl the air in the cabin,” Theo, who loomed over him and his captorers, declared.

“What about you, Rachel?” asked Maggie.

“I was thinking something over the top like Solarflare.” 

“Why would you pick a name like that? Your powers have nothing to do with the sun.” Alex grunted as he tried to hold Griff in place.

“My eyes glow yellow whenever I use my powers,” Rachel argued, “Besides, I’m 100% sure you’re going to call yourself something like Zero Gravity or Zero-G or whatever.”

“You have no evidence of that,” Alex snapped a bit too quickly.

“I wanted mine to be Armor,” said Hisako, “I mean, it’s appropriate.”

“I always wanted to be called Lunar Lycan,” Maggie said.

“Isn’t that a bit redundant,” Henry pointed out, “Like, werewolves transform during the full moon.”

Maggie grumbled. “What’s your hero name, smartass?” 

“Phantom Menace!” Henry stood up and pointed to the skies like it was the most clever hero name ever, but he only received laughter and giggles. Even Coco and Alex fell backwards and freed Griff.

“Oh, are those dinosaur boxers hiding a big dick?” Griff said, “Because going against Disney requires some big balls.”

Despite being clothed, Henry chose to cover himself. “F-fuck you.”

“Oh --” Griff had his mouth frozen this time.

“Mine is totally going to be Torrent,” Coco said proudly.

“Is it because you pirate tv shows?” Beatrice snarked.

“Shut up.”

“I’m going to be Earthshaker,” Beatrice stomped forward, but nothing happened. “Hehe, probably haven’t gotten to metal yet.” She turned her head. “What about you, Mika?” 

“Railgun’s for me!” She did bleed off a little lightning, but it was not enough to do harm. Large amounts of groaning happened in the cabin. “What, is it bad?”

“You’re making another Mikoto Misaka reference?” groaned Satoshi.

“Mikoto who?”

“The protagonist of  _ Toaru Kagaku no Railgun _ ,” said Henry.

“Your Japanese actually hurts,” said Satoshi. “I mean, you have the hair, the eyes, the lightning powers --”

“And the flat chest, and probably the complex with the flat chest, and the ugly shorts under her skirt, the same kind even, and actually now that I think about it, you do sound like her English dub -- Ahh!” Henry had to dodge a bolt of lightning from her. “Guys?”

“Hey, you brought this on yourself,” Maggie said, “Nice knowing you.”

She was about to electrocute the living hell out of Henry when she heard this: “How about a different name, Bug Zapper!” Laughter broke out in the cabin at Danielle’s comment. Yes, Danielle of all people made the comment. Of course, Mika was cackling with electricity when the train car slowed to a halt. 

“Everyone,” Theo ordered, “Let’s exit the train in two single file lines and --” Everyone rushed past him. “Why do I even bother?”

After gathering, everyone was met by Reed and Sue.

“Welcome to your test,” said Reed, “I’m sure Marshal explained to you that this is a demerit system, meaning your score can only go down.”

“Depending on what your score is, you risk losing your spot. If you score a seventy or below, you fail and can take this again. If you get a fifty or below, then you are expelled,” said Sue.

“Expelled?”

“No way. This is just like one of Marshal’s tricks, right?”

“We’re doomed.”

“We can do this!”

“Shut up!”

“Follow us,” Reed said. 

They led the twenty to what appears to be a mall. They stood outside of it. “Here,” Sue explained, “Is where you will take your test. This is a valuable hostage situation, meaning it is against the villains’ best interest to kill the hostage. You are a group of heroes who are in charge of rescuing the hostage from the villains without harming the hostage. Even if the villains escape, you haven an opportunity to intercept them on the way to multiple evil lairs. Choose carefully.”

“What’s the hostage?” 

“A girl who can cause shockwaves whenever she gets scared.” 

_ This test. It’s almost as if they want us to fail. Surely getting hit by the girl would cause us to lose a ton of points. Not to mention points lost from collateral damage. _ Franklin sighed and then stood up. “We’re ready when you are.”

The mall itself was as one would expect. A fountain was in the center next to the food court. A ticket booth for the cinemas was also there. Atop the escalators were their “villains,” Johnny Storm and Ben Grimm. One was even wearing a cheap Italian mustache to look like a mob boss. Three guesses who.

“Once we start the clock, you will need to capture the villains and save the hostage.” Reed held up his stopwatch as Sue raised an invisible platform. “Begin.”

“Get down!” bellowed Maggie as black quills flew towards everyone. Several people ducked and had the spike hit the ground next to them. Others had thrown up tables and chairs to intercept the shots. 

“They must really want to expel one of us,” Henry commented as he looked at a spike which missed him by mere inches.

“This wasn’t a part of the test outline,” Valeria thought aloud, “How is it possible --”

“Wait, this isn’t a test.” Franklin looked up at the Human Torch and the Thing. The ground shook as the Thing landed on his feet while the Human Torch flew in the air, narrowly dodging the attack. “Those are real villains!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ghost's and Dark's notes:  
> \- We actually discussed whether or not to show the meeting between the FF and Tetrarchy. Ghost thought they sounded too old ... which was the point since that was the idea with this world. More on that in a bit.  
> \- Introduction to the real villains are here!  
> \- A mall design was used because we watched Stranger Things season 3 before writing this.  
> \- The Death of the Author argument was actually one used in English class.  
> \- The title of the chapter is taken from Kingdom Hearts.


	10. Darkness of the Unknown

The dark portal released more and more villains. Some were those beastial monsters which resembled tigers, lizards, and porcupines merged into one. Others more closely resembled humans. They were spreading out to best encircle the kids and the Fantastic Four.

The three leaders consisted of an armored boy, a cloaked boy, and a boy who didn’t bother to hide his identity. 

“Villains? Us? I’m deeply hurt. My associates and I prefer the Sentinels of Liberty.” The hooded boy sounded young. Judging by his height and voice alone, he was no older than Franklin. Quite possibly, he could be younger. _What’s a kid like him hanging around villains?_

“Hm, the Fantastic Four are here,” said their portal, someone Franklin recognized as Exile, “Our intel said Sepulcher and his class would be here. How quaint, he’s nowhere to be found.” Exile was a known Inhuman terrorist with bounties from America to Attilan. He is the biggest chemical terrorist since Shoko Asahara in Japan. Exile’s terrigen attacks are infamous. “Do you think the Aberrant can handle them?”

“The Aberrant is more than capable,” said the cloaked boy.

“If he can’t,” said the boy who didn’t wear anything special, “Then we can take em. I’m sick of killing random Purifiers. This will at least be a challenge.”

“If the Fantastic Four is dying, it will be by my hand,” hissed the cloaked boy.

“Not without me, you’re not. Besides, fighting children is boring.”

“Strucker, don’t underestimate the children,” said the boy in the hood. 

Exile stayed silent as more villains and monsters poured out from his portals. Among them was a creature who looked like he was a cross between a werewolf, vampire, and dragon. Unlike the assorted villains and monsters, Franklin felt cold, as if all happiness had suddenly vanished from the world in that moment. _That must be the Aberrant._

“Wait, how did these villains even know we’re here,” observed Valeria, “This place is supposed to be a secret. We’re all here, so they can’t use any of our ways of access. We must have some kind of traitor or irresponsible idiot. And of course, they chose to attack when we’re isolated from everyone else. Who knows what else they know.”

“Good observations, Val, but now is not the time,” said her mother, “You three,” she said to the rest of the Fantastic Four, “Get them out of here. I’ll deal with the villains.”

She raised a barrier between the class and her as she took off to fight the villains. 

“Attack!” ordered the hooded boy. 

“You heard the bossman, fire!” Bolts of lightning and fireballs flew towards the Invisible Woman who used a levitating disk she made to dodge the attacks. She made a second force field to withstand the barrage of needle crystals from a crystalline villain. Wrapping the force field into a bubble around her, she created an explosion which ejected the villains from the premise. 

“Of course she would be the one to charge first,” the hooded boy commented as he kneeled down next to one of the fallen. 

The Invisible Woman charged directly at the villains. Invisible ribbon blades tore through the monsters nearest to her. These monsters resembled iguanas in appearance, but they had quills like porcupines. Upon the blades striking them, they turned to dust almost immediately.

Two mummy-like villains got on either side of the Invisible Woman and promptly ensnared her arms with their bandages. Unfortunately for them, she didn’t need her arms to call forth her force fields to slice to bandages.

The hooded boy looked at the class who was running from them. 

“Radiance?” said Strucker.

“Let them run. They can’t escape Exile,” said Radiance.

“Damn it,” Reed said as he pressed a button on a black box, “They must have some kind of jammer. Guess we need to escape the old fashioned way.”

“Now you’re talking.” Johnny entered his fire form.

Before long, a black portal appeared on the ground in front of them. Exile stood and smiled. “Leaving so soon? We just met. You know, we were really hoping for the Tetrarchy and not you four. Oh well, this is somehow even better.” Valeria glared at Exile. She raised her fist and fired at him. “I hope your masters are better heroes than they are teach --” Another blast was aimed directly for Exile who pulled his mist over him. “You sly dog. You caught me monologuing.” Reed was still gritting his teeth, violently tapping the button on his black box. “Something tells me you don’t want to be here. Maybe you’ll be nicer to my friends.” Dark tendrils ripped through the boxed region he had secluded them into. 

_Wait,_ thought Tyler, _Since the tendrils are teleporting us._ He ran as fast as he could and grabbed anyone in his way. He burst through the enclosure. _The tendrils are teleporting us. The enclosure is just a ruse._

Thank goodness his gamble worked. 

* * *

_Oh crap_ Franklin was falling towards the battlements of the castle. _Wait, I can do this. I just need to grab my cape and make sure to create enough drag. I’m too close. Wait, a moat! If I can time this just right and_ \--

He stopped midair. “Huh?” Looking up, he saw Rachel who was hyperventilating. “Ruby!”

Then she promptly dropped him and Kei on the battlements before crashing knees first into the ground. “Okay, ow,” she uttered, “You two are heavier than you look.”

“You and I weigh the exact same,” remarked Franklin.

“Dude, you never call a girl heavy,” said Kei.

“Can we just focus on the villain attack,” said Rachel. 

“Right,” said Franklin, “So the villains clearly planned this all out. But how much did they plan this out?”

“Well, they clearly did a lot since they knew everything about this place and the schedule,” said Rachel.

“But did they really plan everything out?” Franklin looked towards the moat and forests of this vampire castle. “Why would they throw you here with us, Ruby?”

“Right,” said Kei, “If they wanted to kill us, then they’d never throw us in here with Rachel here. We would have been sidewalk pancakes or shish kabobed on top of the castle.”

“Also, why throw us to the top of the castle,” Rachel said, “Like, we can see pretty well here. They should have boxed us in and killed us.” She looked over into the darkness. It was faint, but she could make out some outlines in the dark. “Look, they’re surrounding us. It’s like they have pretty good overall planning but bad on the details.”

“They probably separated us because they know we’re stronger together. Then they’ll use overwhelming force to kill us. They don’t know what our powers are. We don’t know what theirs are.” He went to Rachel’s side and saw the shadows within the shadows. “Look, they’re not advancing. It proves they’re afraid of us.”

Kei smirked. “Well, let’s give them something to be afraid of.”

The ground began to shake as water struck the side of the castle. A massive lionfish emanating a dark smoke erupted from the seas. On its back spines were a group of twelve villains.

“I thought you said they didn’t know our powers?” said Kei.

“They probably don’t,” Franklin said, “One of them must have a gigantification power!”

* * *

The evil apartment lair was a skyscraper which hung over the city. Here, Coco and Alex were thrown here. The pair were back-to-back, watching the villains surround them.

“Surrender and we won’t kill you,” said the commanding villain.

“Why the hell should we believe you?” Coco said, “You’re the villains.” Creaking filled the air as metal snapped off their braces and began to flood the room. When the villains turned to look at what broke, this was their opportunity to strike. Alex reached out with both hands and began to weigh down the villains. Meanwhile, the water turned into tendrils and wrapped around the other half of the villains.

“You call yourselves the Sentinels of Liberty? You’re pathetic,” Coco scolded, “Not one of you deserves their name.”

“Coco,” Alex said through closed teeth, “Less monologuing, more interrogating.”

“So let’s get down to business. Your names, your positions, and your objectives.”

* * *

In the undersea dome lair, Maggie held a villain by the neck with her fangs. Blood stained the walls as Valeria continued to blast enemies into them.

“Just a bunch of low level mooks as expected,” Valeria remarked.

* * *

On the yacht, the boat continued to rock and throw tables overboard as Beatrice, Satoshi, Mika, Candela, and Henry attempted to keep their balance. 

“Now,” said Strucker, “We’ll have some fun.”

* * *

In the volcano lair, Danielle, Hisako, Cor, and Kaelynn began to sweat beads as enemies came for them.

“Okay, so let’s see who gives out first,” Kaelynn panted while trying to keep a brave face, “These losers or us?”

* * *

In the mall with the Fantastic Four, Tyler, Leon, Griff, and Theo were standing in front of Exile.

“Impressive,” said Exile, “I expected nothing less from the talents you have as your mentors. It’s just a shame we couldn’t be on the same side.” He eyed Reed, Johnny, and Ben. “As for you, Radiance would like to see you.” Sheets of darkness fell over the three as they were removed from the battlefield.

“What are we going to do now,” said Theo, “Tyler and I can’t get close to touch him, Leon can’t shoot him because he’ll redirect it, and I doubt Griff will be able to punch him with that armor. I say Griff runs for help.”

“What? I’m no coward,” said Griff.

“We’ll deal with this bastard,” said Theo, “But you have the best chance to get to Master Pham.”

“Do you think he’ll even believe us?” 

“Hm, try crying,” Theo suggested, “Now go!”

* * *

As the water receded, the castle began to sink. So much water had seeped into the ground that the foundation was sinking into the ground. The water began to rise with the giant lionfish.

“Shit,” Rachel said, “Grab on!” The boys clung to her cape as she launched herself into the air. 

“Wait, weren’t there only a couple of bad guys … ” Kei pointed to the enemies on the giant lionfish’s back. One of the men was duplicating. “Oh crap.” Tendrils of water began flying into the sky as one of the enemies pointed at them. Debris from the castle also flew towards them.

“I need to stop flying,” said Rachel, “We’ll be skewered up here.”

“Uh, but we’ll also end up skewered in the water,” said Kei, “Besides, I can’t draw underwater.”

“Then you better draw while we’re dropping,” said Rachel.

“Wait,” Franklin said as he looked into the water, “I have an idea. Grab onto your sketchbook and summon your kaiju. I have an idea. Ruby, I’ll need your help.”

An ice bullet roughly one foot in diameter began to float in front of Franklin. “Ruby, now! Launch it as fast as you can!” 

“Here it goes!” She punched forward, forcing the ice bullet directly into the water.

As the water struck, the villains, including the monster, were dragged into the vortex of the water. Some were thrown off the lionfish. 

“Of course,” Kei said, “I can’t believe I forgot about that!” Kei’s sketchbook glowed and his kaiju appeared. Smasher was ready to fight. Raising its war hammer into the air, Smasher demonstrated what they, the collective of Slizzik, Hi-Vo, Aegis, Scragg and Mekara, really were. With one stroke, the mighty monster was now chum.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ghost's notes  
> \- Strucker is obviously Andy Strucker from the Gifted, Exile I took more inspiration from his Marvel Rising (that was a failure) counterpart, and the cloaked boy is an OC.  
> \- The monsters are based on Heartless like the Dark Hide while the villains are based on Ben 10 aliens.  
> \- Aberrant is named after the aberrant clones from The Force Unleashed II.
> 
> Dark's notes  
> \- The giant fish the kids fight in the Vampire Castle is based on one of the raid bosses of Kingdom Hearts Union X.  
> \- Radiance is named after Iedolas Aldercapt who is addressed as "His Radiance" more than once.   
> \- I wish we could give more page time to Kei and his Kaiju, but he ends up killings tons of tension if he could just step on the villains.


	11. Tensions Rising

The kids were waddling through a section where the water had been mostly absorbed by the ground. Well, the monsters were waddling through the water. It was still greatly flooded by the  _ Kingdom Hearts Union Cross  _ raid boss.

“I’m sure the idea was to have us inside the castle and then flood it. That would make a great death trap. Still, I can’t help but shake the feeling that there is some twist or turn waiting for us and --”

“Dude,” Kei said.

“Franklin, just take the win,” said Rachel, “Was he like this when you won during the first day?” she said to Kei.

“No, I don’t think he said anything,” said Kei, “Um, where to next?”

“My family is out there fighting. We need to get to them,” said Franklin, “But we need the element of surprise. I think we can rule out taking the long way though the other villain HQs. The exits are going to be guarded. I think the shortest, least guarded path will be the direct one.”

“I think you should send the kaiju back to, um, wherever they come from,” said Rachel.

“Why,” Kei asked,”Like, they can be really useful.”

“Uh, giant monsters seem a bit much and can crush us by accident.”

* * *

“A living weapon made out of the corpse of a powerful enemy dead and seemingly forgotten,” said Coco. 

“That doesn’t sound good,” said Alex, “But I can’t help shake something.”

“Which is?”

“This isn’t some big name like Thanos or Ultron attacking us. It’s just some random terrorist with a million bounties on his head. He’s more trouble than he’s worth, especially with how rich you can get off of turning him in alone. What if there’s a bigger bad behind this?”

Coco coughed. “Yes, that’s weird. The ringleader is also a kid. Who follows a kid into battle except other kids? All these villains … Well, we can focus on that later. Right now, we need to get moving.”

* * *

“Now, put your hands above your head or I’ll blow your dog’s brains out.” Valeria rolled her eyes at this villain. She certainly raised her hand, but she shot Maggie and the villain directly into the wall. Then she grabbed Maggie, threw her aside, and then promptly grabbed the villain’s face and blasted it point blank with her concussive force blast.

“Jesus Christ,” Maggie gasped, “Are you sick in the head?” Maybe she is more like Rachel than she would admit.

“We’re done here. I’m going after the real villains,” Valeria said.

“Um, all these are real villains,” said Maggie.

“I’m not talking about low level thugs. I’m talking about the brains behind this,” said Val, “The ones with the guts to take on my parents. Look, I’ll explain on the way, but we need to stop that kid in the hood. Obviously, there’s some history between him and my parents.”

* * *

“I’m gonna hurl,” Satoshi said as Candela vomited all over one of the villains who reeled back and began wiping himself off. The boat was rocking. Everyone was clinging to anything bolted down in hopes of not being thrown overboard.

“Not funny, Toshi.” Candela swallowed her vomit. “My powers don’t work if I’m seasick or sloshed.”

“Speak for yourself,” Mika said as she was dripping from head to toe, “I’ll fry myself this way.”

“Not much in the way of rocks on a boat except for ceramics and glass,” said Beatrice.

“Alright, Phantom Menace, it’s your time to shine!” Henry flared bright blue as he readied himself to fire on the attackers. “Twilight Blitz!” Light erupted all over the battlefield. In a span of seconds, the other kids hit the deck as the villains were blasted right off the deck. “Now that’s how it’s done!”

“Care to give us more than a few seconds to hit the deck,” Beatrice said, “I can’t even see now.”

“Sorry,” Henry said as he fell to the ground.

“I’m not down yet.” Strucker leaped out from where he was hiding

* * *

“I never understood why people made vents so big, but I’ve never been so thankful,” Kei noted as they snuck through the vents to the second floor of the mall. They kept low, watching the battle below.

Bodies were scattered about. Black mist was certainly present. Among the enemies currently on the ground were some kind of axolotl which breathed ice currently fighting the Human Torch, a four-armed cyclops who was exchanging punches with the Thing, a patchwork muscular giant which fired lightning fought Mr. Fantastic, and the green and white laser shooting behemoth fought the Invisible Woman. All four were of no consequence and subsequently littered the flood.

“Now, time for the big bad,” Johnny said as he charged directly for Radiance. Raising his fist, he fired a beam of fire right at Radiance. 

“Funny, that was exactly what I was thinking.” Radiance raised his hand. Like a ray of sunlight to a mirror, the beam deflected upward towards the glass dome of the mall. Raining down on their heads was shards of lot glass. Stepping forward, a massive ice wall erupted from his foot. He took aim for the Invisible Woman next, fingers sparking with electricity.

Using her force fields, she sealed a dome over the boy. “I’m not exactly an easy picking,” said Sue.

“You must be so proud,” quipped the boy. Sue stepped back and gasped. In fact, all Four stopped in their tracks to watch what he did. In an instant, a dark miasma appeared to emanate from his hand where lightning once occupied. Black cracks began to form on the force field before breaking apart into a fine powder before dissipating into the air.

“You’re … no, it can’t be,” choked Reed.

“People say I have a very plain and ordinary face. Do I look like anyone you know?” The miasma turned to black flames as the boy swept in front of him towards the Thing and Mr. Fantastic. To his sides were his long range opponents who threw an invisible disk and blasted a stream of fire respectively. The boy leaped into the air more than any child their age had any right to. “Attack!” More monsters fired their quills at the pair who were safe under Sue’s shields. The boy also intervened and destroyed the shield protecting the Thing. He then went directly for the face. A bolt of lightning threw the Thing back.

“You’re not bad, kid,” the Thing coughed, “But I’m not done yet.”

Without hesitation, the Thing attempted to punch the kid who formed an x over his chest to block. He only slid back three meters at most.

“Excellent, I was just testing how durable you really were,” said the boy, “It’ll make my experimental data more accurate.”

“Experimental data?” Reed coughed.

“Look out!” Johnny flew between his brother-in-law and a monster and unleashed another stream of fire. Still, the monster walked out of the flame unharmed. “The hell?”

“The Aberrant is very much fireproof,” said the boy. The Aberrant, a dracowerepyre as Franklin would describe it, raised his fist and slammed the Human Torch into the ground. One strike. That was all it took to defeat 25% of the Fantastic Four. Johnny now lies face first in a pool of blood.

“No,” Franklin uttered silently.

* * *

_ My teleportation is only as good as my vision.  _ Griff thought. He teleported ten feet directly above Exile. 

“No, you won’t be escaping me!” Exile’s shadow extended further upward to intercept him. 

“Gotcha!” Tyler began running directly into Exile.  _ My armor lets me become a battering ram. Let’s see how it works with this guy. _ He heard cracking, and it was certainly not just Exile’s armor.

“How dare you?” Exile brought down his hand. “I’ll send you into the nearest freezing lake.”

“Nice one, Tyler!” Slapping his hands together, Leon sprayed venom on both Tyler and Exile. 

“No!” Exile gripped his head as whispers filled his head. The shadows began to retreat.

Griff began to teleport rapidly. 

“Get back here!” Exile roared as he and his shadow appeared in front of Griff.

“Not so fast, jackass!” Tyler grabbed Theo and threw him directly at Exile. Upon impact, Theo touched Exile’s now exposed head which paralyized him. While he did let go from the impact, that fifteen second delay was all Griff needed.

“Thanks guys. I won’t let you down!”

* * *

The Thing could endure punches from the Hulk and return the favor, but this Aberrant was not like the Hulk. The Hulk would flinch at the punches of the Thing, but this Aberrant as Radiance called it ... It was like punching a wall of rubber. Ben was thrown back by a single punch. His eye was forced shut by the sand that was now his flesh. He probably had at least three broken ribs and sixteen fractured bones. The “wings” on the back of the monster could contort and stab right through the stony exterior of the Thing right into the internal organs. Ben Grimm may look like a monster, but he bled like any other man. The stab through the chest tore through both heart and spine just like any other man.

“I see shock absorption works,” said Radiance.

“Ben!” Reed desperately wrapped around the fist of the Aberrant who roared out in defiance. “Sue, now!”

An invisible force field appeared around the head of the Aberrant and closed in. The head was crushed. “This is for you, Ben.” Sue thrusted her hands up and pulled the Aberrant apart.

“Well done, you beat the boss.” Radiance began to laugh hysterically. If they could see under that hood, they would probably see tears. 

“I wouldn’t be laughing if I were you,” said Sue.

“I wouldn’t want to  _ be _ you.” Howling from the monster chilled Sue to the bone as she turned around. Reed was bleeding as the monster healed with ease. Then Reed was discarded like bloody gauze. Out of the corner of her eye, she may have seen organs hanging out. No, she wouldn’t think about that for now. Sue stood before a monster alone.

“What is this thing?”

“Like I said, I really, really wouldn’t want to  _ be _ you.” The monster slammed his fist into Sue’s shield. Then he opened his mouth. The same black miasma the boy had made tore through her shields and struck her square in the ribs. The breath attack tore through the shields of the Invisible Woman and collapsed her rib cage. Her lungs, heart, and liver were flattened in an instant. Her spine snapped under the impact against the wall.

“We need to save them,” Franklin said. Kei and Rachel grabbed his shoulders.

“Franklin, please,” said Rachel.

“You saw what they did to your family,” said Kei, “Look, let me think of a monster. We’ll use a monster to fight a monster and --” Something crashed on the ground behind them. What flashed before their eyes was a vision of Death in the flesh. Looming over them was the Aberrant.

“Eavesdroppers,” spat Radiance, “Aberrant, deal with them appropriately.”

The Aberrant lifted his fist to crash upon the children’s heads. In a split second decision, Rachel pulled the boys back. The three took their fighting stance. Each one was shaking. Four veteran heroes went down in under ninety seconds. What chance would children have?

Franklin mustered enough strength to step forward and unleash a wall of ice to freeze the Aberrant. 

“Hey arsehole!” Maggie snarled as she and Valeria charged directly for the boy. Valeria’s fists glowed bright green as she landed the first blow against the boy. Meanwhile, Maggie struck at the Aberrant. 

“It’s bleeding,” Franklin observed.

“My bite contains an anticoagulant,” said Maggie.

“English,” said Rachel.

“It prevents blood from clotting.” The red liquid soon turned pitch black and misty. “What … what is that thing?”

Valeria’s mask was blasted off her face as she slid on her feet towards her the rest of the group.

“Valeria Richards herself,” said the boy from behind his shield, “I always wanted to meet the daughter of the villains who sent my father to an early grave.”

“That voice. Who are you?” Franklin remembered that voice. It’s like he remembered it from a hazy dream.

“I don’t care who your father was, but I’m sure he deserved it.” A stream of green light erupted from Valeria’s fist. 

Radiance dodged the attack and balanced on the railing. “I’m equally sure that you deserve an early grave right here and now. Aberrant, kill them.” The monster roared as it blasted a red beam towards the kids. Franklin slammed the ground as ice erupted. Flashes of red and green light blinded the two. You didn’t need to have your sight to know that you were falling.

“Is everyone alright,” coughed Kei.

“Nope,” said Maggie, “We gotta deal with that.”

Out of the smoke came the boy in the hood and the Aberrant. The boy stretched out his hand and summoned his sword. 

“We’re going to have to fight both of them?” gasped Franklin.

“Nowhere to run. That thing’s too fast,” said Rachel.

“If two defects like you would rather run, then hang yourselves with your capes. I’m not going to let them get away.” Valeria’s hands sparked as she prepared herself for a fight.

Water tendrils rushed out of nowhere. Looking to the side, Coco stood with plenty of water to use for combat. The tendrils froze the arms of the monster before ripping them clean off.

“Sorry we’re late to the party,” said Coco.

“No worries. You’ll all end up in the same place.” Radiance looked at his monster who regrew the arms in a matter of seconds.

“Shock absorption, fireproof, healing, and a boatload of other powers,” Kei said, “How are we going to beat that thing?”

“I’d like to see you try.” Both the Aberrant and Radiance charged for the kids.

_ Rachel, Kei, Coco, Alex, and Maggie vs. the Aberrant _

Water pipes burst from the ground to the walls as Coco unleashed his eight tentacle attack. “Octopus Slice Style!” Eight sharp tentacles of water tore at the Aberrant who merely walked forward. The water could slash him, but the Aberrant had the perfect counter, the breath weapon. More vapor was being produced the more it fired in sweeping motions. Coco had to lighten his attack to avoid the laser ripping through the air.

Slashes from razor water were sealed faster than Coco could attack. Even the freezing and breaking was just as effective as before. Freezing the water, he attempted to crush the Aberrant. 

The ice flashed as Coco was thrown away from the battlefield. Rachel soon grabbed him.

“I’m sorry,” Coco said weakly.

“It’s okay,” said Rachel who let him on the ground slowly. “It’s our turn now. Ready, Alex?” Floating behind the two was all the debris Alex could quite literally get his hands on. The difference between Alex and Rachel’s power was clear. Alex could only affect items he touched. Rachel’s range was her line of sight. 

“Lighter than a feather … ” Alex grunted. The more mass he deals with, the less potent his powers. Rachel closed her fist and began to throw all the debris on the Aberrant. “Then heavy as a house!” Literal tons of tables, chairs, broken concrete, bent railings, and ice fell on the monster’s head. Shrugging off the attack, the Aberrant rammed through any debris which missed. 

“That did nothing?” Alex fell to his knees. Rachel stood next to him. 

She saw the Aberrant and began to fire directly for the monster. The fallen tables still existed. The only reason that beast slowed was to punch and blast the debris. When everything to throw was broken, Rachel gasped, “Let’s try this!” Wind flew through the room, but the air wave was nothing. “Maggie, now!”

Maggie leaped into the air. When Rachel stopped the wind, she grabbed the Aberrant by the arm. “Shock absorption can’t absorb indirect attacks, right?” She flipped the Aberrant over, the first sign that it could truly be stopped … had Coco not ripped the arms off earlier.

A surge of dark energy threw all the kids away. 

On the ground, the kids tried to move their arms and legs, but it was all in vain. Everything was broken. Purple and red was the color of their skin. There was no function bone for their muscles to move. Their vision was blurred by the impact against the wall.

However, an ice wall appeared between them and stopped the Aberrant’s assault as he looked at his young master.

_ Franklin and Valeria vs. Radiance _

Saturated steam and ice flew into the air as another blast from Valeria was deflected right into Franklin’s chest. Radiance attempted to slash at Valeria. Clearly, this boy had no idea how to use a sword since he swung it wildly like a club. Still, it was not in anyone’s interest to taunt him because a sword is a sword no matter what.

When Franklin got to his feet, he prepared another ice attack. Then he looked up. Lightning crashed from above. _Guess Master Pham’s lessons did me more good than I thought._ _Let’s see how fast I can really go._

Turning around, he spawned a wall of ice which froze what lurked behind him. “No,” he realized that his friends were down. He added three additional layers just to be safe before taking off.

Valeria was in close quarters with Radiance. Dragon Force was an amazing power for offensive tactics, but when on the defensive, it was barely enough. Valeria was mainly using it to buy time by blunting the force of Radiance’s swings with her own lasers as she continued to make space. 

Radiance was more than aware of this. He was staying as close as possible to prevent her from having a tactical advantage. 

_ Here it goes. _ Opening her hand, she fired a series of small lasers. These weren’t as strong as her usual blasts, but she had one thing in mind: The _ fiercest serpent may be defeated by a swarm of ants. _

_ Yes. _ She had done it. She had forced Radiance to use a force field. Aiming at the ground, she fired her attack which jettisoned her several meters away

“Fleeing like the coward you are,” said Radiance. He turned around and saw Franklin. An ice blade covering his hand was mere inches from Radiance’s head. 

“No you don’t!” A burst of flame met Franklin’s ice. Looking at his costume, the sleeves were torn away by the impact. His arm was covered in boiling water.

_ I can’t feel the pain. I need to keep moving and end this now before it kicks in. _

“Stay out of this. It’s not your fight!”

Franklin leaped back as ice erupted from the ground and from the walls. 

“Ice, too?” he exclaimed, “What is this guy?” 

As the mist began to cover everywhere, Valeria looked down at her hands which had frost covering them. Then it melted away.  _ Good, thermoregulation still works. _

“There’s nowhere to run, Valeria,” said Radiance in a voice more raspy than before. “Greet your parents in hell for me.” Radiance generated a force field once more. The disk spun as it flew towards Valeria who dodged and countered with her own laser barrage where another shield went up. While the spikes were cut cleanly in two, a wall took their place. 

Stomping on the ground, spikes charged towards Valeria and impaled her through the legs. She gasped.

“Gotcha.” Lightning flew from Radiance’s fingers as Valeria convulsed on the ground. Lifting her up with the lightning chain, Radiance dragged her through the ground. Thrashing her into the broken concrete and shattered ice to make sure Val couldn’t move, he dragged her before him. “Now, you join your parents in hell!” He drove the sword down towards her head.

Val closed her eyes. Fate had brought her here.

Franklin burst through the spike shield. It didn’t matter to Radiance. He was ready to kill her.

“No!” Franklin placed all five fingers on the ground, hoping the surrounding ice would grow to shield his sister. 

When Valeria opened her eyes, she saw a barrier demarcated by hexagons. 

“This isn’t like Mother’s.” She looked at Franklin who had used the burned arm to raise the barrier to save her. The blade struck it, but it didn’t break. 

“This power,” Radiance said to himself, “He didn’t use this before. Was he not fighting seriously? Or is this a new development? Of course, it’s always a new development with these people.”

The shield burst and sent Radiance towards Franklin. Like a cat, he landed on his feet. They were now standing eye to eye. Radiance’s hood was torn. Franklin’s flew off upon explosion. Four eyes lit up. Despite being far away from each other, they knew just who they were.

“Clove?”

“Franklin?”

“When you said I could be a hero, this isn’t the second meeting I was expecting,” Franklin commented.

“That’s an understatement. I can’t believe you fell for the allure of the villains,” Clove scoffed. He swung his sword for Franklin’s head. Franklin attempted to block it with an ice blade, but something else materialized. 

_ Franklin vs. Clove _

Valeria was on the ground. Barely anything moved at her command. She tried to move her fingers, but even they failed her outside of some curling. All she could do was watch and wait. 

A glow surrounded her brother. Light and darkness spiraled around him. He looked like a different person. Despite the burns running down his arm and bruises on his face, he was still ready to fight.

Clove’s fighting style was sloppy and childish. He swung his blade like a club. His slashes overreached and were too noticeable. It’s almost as if he learned to fight from films and television rather than actual combat. Franklin’s blocks were precise with a matching stance to decrease strain on his back and shoulders. He was fighting defensively for the most part, and countered one of Clove’s stabs with a slash through the throat. 

Still, Clove healed from that.

When it came to mastery of their powers, Clove was the undisputed master. 

“Your powers. They haven’t reached their truest potential yet,” Clove said. Both his hands were on the ground as lines of spikes charged towards Franklin who stomped forward. 

_ My whole body is in pain … I can’t let up now. Stick with it, Franklin, bear with it. It’ll keep you awake.  _ It felt like a thousand tiny cracks had formed throughout his body, but he wasn’t about to let up now.

Franklin attempted to crush Clove with an ice wall ten times larger than Clove who used a blast of lightning to shatter it. Through the mist, Franklin punched forward. Air rushed towards Clove who created a series of frozen bulwarks to slow him down from the sheer force of that punch.

“What?” Franklin’s entire fist was purple and bleeding from his punch.

Clove blasted fire from his feet to propel him into the air and saw Franklin’s broken right hand. “Your potential just manifested. Your ‘software’ isn’t working with the ‘hardware’ properly. I’ll be glad to show you some tricks though. Watch closely.” 

Out of every finger came a stream of fire which formed a flaming net above Franklin. Franklin stabbed his sword into the ground and raised a shield around him. As the net formed around the shield, Franklin could see it cracking.

_ No time to think. But a force redirection.  _ Rapidly expanding the shield, an explosion rang out through the mall. Out of the smoke came a blast of lightning which struck Clove. Unlike the one used on Valeria, it was a blunt, straightforward attack with no tricks. 

The path before them was cleared. Franklin had to charge with his newfound strength.  _ I need to stop him right here, right now.  _ The spikes from behind Clove grew and twisted. They were coming directly for Franklin who dodged the first two.  _ Just like Glob’s. They’re faster than his. I just need to get closer. _ “Gah!” he screamed as his side was slashed.  _ Cutting it too close. I can’t dodge completely, but I can beat him. Just like Glob, I need to strike him once, but I need to hit hard and fast. _

“Man, you’re stubborn,” Clove huffed.  _ He’s not going to give up and I’m getting tired. I need to end this. Dad, this is for you.  _ “Die!” More spikes came for Franklin. They didn’t erupt from the ground in front of him. Instead, they came from behind Clove and began to move and arch towards Franklin who leaped on the arch to leap off towards Clove.

Franklin and Clove prepared their swords.

_ Here’s my chance! _

The spikes broke when the swords met, but Franklin was on the ground in front of Clove. Clove noticed Franklin’s arm. It was broken and bruised. In fact, both arms were shattered into splinters it seems like.

“If you had better control of your powers, you would have been a worthy opponent,” huffed Clove. He was still standing strong, but he was a very tired boy at this point. He touched the ground once more, this time to retreat the ice. His forces soon returned to their positions.

Clove looked out to the other kids. Franklin was defeated at his feet, Valeria looked like she was going to die at any moment, and the five others were on the ground. Then there was the Fantastic Four themselves. 

Exile appeared at his side. Exile was coughing. “There is nothing we can do now against reinforcements. We must retreat.”

“Did we win?” asked one of the villainous minions. Several had left their positions to gather around Clove. Most gasped or whispered at his display of power. Coco was barely conscious, but his hunch was partially confirmed. They never knew his true power and followed Clove because of who his backers were.

“Not yet,” Clove huffed, “We need to kill the Fantastic Four. Then Exile scatters us.” He looked at his monster who had beaten the kids and was ready to claw them to death. “Aberrant, come to me. We have work to do with the Fantastic Four.” 

Then the entrance burst open.

“I don’t think so,” said Marshal, “Because I am here.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ghost and Dark's notes:  
> \- Fight scenes are hard to write.  
> \- That's right, Clove is the big bad of this arc.  
> \- Franklin vs. Clove is partially based on Ardyn vs. Iggy. It's a lot less fire and lightning, so we had to improvise.  
> \- Come on, like we weren't going to give Franklin Final Fantasy powers. 
> 
> Next up, we have Marshal vs. the Aberrant


	12. Anger Unchained

“I don’t think so,” said Marshal, “Because I am here.”

“Who is that guy,” said a mummy-like villain.

“I don’t know,” said a reptilian ice breather, “But let’s take him out n--”

Two bodies struck the ground with a slash of a sword. Clove stepped back, his eyes darted to see where his mysterious assailant was. More bodies struck the floor, their chests cleaved open by blade. 

“Watch out!” Exile fell backwards as a sword grazed his chest. Flesh was cut, but it wasn’t fatal. Meanwhile, a slash appeared over Clove’s chest as he fell backwards. Of course, the wound sealed itself quickly, but he saw Marshal Pham stand before him. 

“Die!” Ice spikes came for Marshal who unleashed a blast of fire to counter. Clove’s eyes widened as the ice glowed and steam erupted. “Aberrant!” The fire struck the Aberrant who didn’t flinch at the attack.

The Aberrant, without order, raised his fist to punch Marshal who slid back a few feet. He was undamaged, but the Aberrant’s eyes flared. That monster wanted to fight him. Marshal dissipated his blade and intended to fight this monster with his fist.

“Smash!” he bellowed. The punch kicked up a ton of dust and threw back Exile and Clove. 

“One of his powers is shock absorption. No matter how hard you hit, you won’t damage the Aberrant. Can’t say the same for you.” The Aberrant roared and punched Marshal over his left lung. It sent him flying back. Marshal struggled to his feet.

“Master?” Franklin said weakly.

Clove looked at the kids and the Fantastic Four. Both were glowing green. “Everything we’ve accomplished,” hissed Clove, “Gone in an instant.” Still, he noticed they were struggling to their feet even worse than Franklin. The Aberrant certainly did a number on them. He then looked to Marshal.  _ He’s healing them, but he’s not healing himself. Is it because his healing power is slower when there’s more people? _

“You threw a party and invited Brutus, the infamous traitor, but you didn’t invite me, Hitomoshi, or Flutter? I’m so hurt,” Marshal taunted despite his flattened lung.

“Who?” Franklin said softly. It was like he had a lump in his throat that he needed to spit out to talk properly again.

“I guess it’s only appropriate we dug up your old friend,” said Clove, “You should be flattered. The flattened corpse was the only thing strong enough to handle the enhancing procedure. It’s a rather exclusive club when it comes to worthy candidates able to handle the scourge.”

“The scourge,” Reed reiterated.  _ No, it can’t be.  _ “Marshal, listened to me,” he said weakly, “Whatever happens, you cannot beat that thing. It’s too powerful.”

“Master,” Franklin coughed, “We’ve seen what that thing can do. It’s --”

“Mar … Mar … Marshal … ” The Aberrant grabbed his head. Everyone held their breath. It was bad enough the monster was insanely strong, but if it can think … my heavens. 

Clove’s eyes widened at this display of speech.  _ Impossible. The procedure should have fried his brain. Not to mention, he was rotting out in an unmarked grave. How is this possible? Did he hate this Sepulcher that much to cheat death? _

Brutus roared once more. This was unlike any other before. Everyone, even the Fantastic Four, felt the chill of death in their bones and the resonance of rage in their ribs. Eyes flashed red at Marshal.

“Franklin’s right,” said the Invisible Woman, “He could have killed us if you didn’t arrive. There is no way you can win this.”

Brutus roared once more. This was unlike any other before. Everyone, even the Fantastic Four, felt the chill of death in their bones and the resonance of rage in their ribs. Eyes flashed red at Marshal.

“Well,” Clove said as he regained his composure, “You’re not going to win like last time. We’ve made plenty of upgrades.”

“The villain is right. You need us,” said Coco.

“Come on,” Rachel said, “There’s like twelve of us. We’re more than enough for a monster and two villains.”

“Don’t attack,” Marshal ordered, “Get out of here. All of you.” He looked to the Fantastic Four. “That includes you. I can sense that you can’t fight without hurting yourselves further.”

“Forget it,” said the Thing who punched his fists together. “We ain’t leavin.”

“You’re injured, too,” Sue said.

“Perhaps, but what’s one life against all of yours?” Marshal said with a smile.

“Settle your score with Sepulcher. I’ll deal with the rest,” said Clove to the Aberrant. 

Clove took off and took aim for Valeria, his fists emanating the darkness from before.

“Heads up, we’re fighting after all.” Rachel took her stance.

_ They have a minute left of healing before they’re out of the red. I’m injured. I have to stop these villains because I am no master if I can’t protect my students. _

Throwing off his coat, he charged right for Brutus. 

Brutus fired three successive breath attacks. Marshal slammed his forearms together and forced every pebble, rock, and spec of dust to form into an armor for him. The earthen armor didn’t slow Marshal. In fact, Franklin thought he moved even faster. _ If that thing can beat the Invisible Woman’s shields, I best not take chances meeting the breath attacks head on. Use the armor to enhance my strength. _

Marshal stomped forward. Exile screamed as he grabbed his shattered shin from an earthen spike.

Fists met. Upon impact, everyone was thrown in all directions. Even Ben Grimm, a ten foot man made of rock, was lifted away by the shockwave.

“Weren’t you listening,” Clove said as he flipped in midair and landed. “One of his powers is shock absorption.”

“Yeah,” Marshal said, “What about it?”

Fists met fists continuously as Marshal and Brutus fought. Franklin shielded his eyes with his broken hand as he latched onto the ground with the burned one. He eventually flew back and was caught by Rachel’s telekinetic grip.

“He’s gonna fight that monster head on,” Franklin said.

“Obviously,” Valeria said.

“They’re just so fast,” Rachel shouted. The wind muffled her additional comments.

Coco, meanwhile, was clinging to Kei who was flapping in the wind like a flag. He was stunned silent.  _ That’s impossible. Even with that armor, he’s still going. How can he be so strong? _

“He said your power was shock absorption, not nullification. That means there must be a limit to what you can take, right? If you really can stand me firing at 100% of my power, then I’ll have to go beyond that and force you to surrender!” More punches flew from Marshal. Brutus began to step back to deal with the impacts. 

_ Impossible!  _ Brutus opened his mouth. Marshal released fragments of the rock armor over his arms to block the impact.

Brutus managed to see a weak spot and punch Marshal right in his left rib. Marshal’s rocky armor broke, but Marshal didn’t seem phased by his ribs breaking and his lung flattening once more. Instead, he kept his focus on Brutus whose mouth opened. He never intended for an immediate blast. He wanted to distract Marshal with pain to unleash it at point blank range.

Using the shards of the armor, Marshal proceeded to slam the rocks into Brutus’s jaws at the last second and force it shut. 

An explosion rocked the entire area. Brutus’s jaw was broken open, but he could see Marshal’s fist send him through the air. Out of the dust, Marshal leaped for Brutus who regained his footing, not to mention healed his jaw, and charged for Marshal who landed a flying kick on Brutus. The shock absorption failed at that moment. It had reached its upper limit. Even if it wasn’t fully gone, the absorption had to let the force of his enemy’s attacks through. Brutus had been flung into the air once more.

“A real hero will always find a way for justice to be served.” Grabbing the monster in midair, Marshal threw him directly into the ground. 

In place of the mall fountain, a crater now existed. When Marshal landed, a rock pillar ejected Brutus into the air. 

Marshal was not done. When he landed, the rock armor broke completely into dust.

“Now for a lesson, you may have heard these words before, but I’ll teach you what they really mean. Go beyond, PLUS ULTRA!” Marshal’s veins flare a volcanic red as the final punch throws the monster which so easily defeated everyone else right into the air. It didn’t crash through the glass dome. No, Marshal had aimed through the concrete ceiling.

The clouds above them had been broken by a mere punch by Marshal. Windows, mall displays, and jewelry glass across the entire complex shattered. 

When the dust settled, the heroes and students gazed at Marshal.

“That power,” Reed said.

“Kids these days,” Ben joked.

“Well, now we know why he got that hero name,” said Johnny.

“I wonder if I got hit in the head too hard and this is just a coma dream,” said Sue who gripped her head.

Clove was struck silent. A thousand thoughts rang through his head, but none of them could comprehend this moment.

“I can’t believe I didn’t notice it before.” Rachel pointed to Marshal’s hero costume. “Look familiar?”

Franklin squinted, but he didn’t see anything of note. “Uh, you see anything?” Valeria shrugged.

“You’re right,” said Kei with his eyes beaming.

“How did I not see this before? It’s a UA gym uniform!” Rachel exclaimed.

“Not just any uniform,” Kei pointed out, “Doesn’t Deku wear that during the US -- oh crap.”

“Now look,” Rachel said. The kids saw Marshal glow green. For a moment, his curly hair looked green and black. If they didn’t see it before, now they did. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dark's Notes:
> 
> Ah yes, the moment of truth.
> 
> Funny story with this chapter is how became an All Might vs. Nomu reference. Ghost came to me and said that he imagines Marshal being voiced by Justin Briner. I responded it would be appropriate since Marshal does have hero analysis books like Midoriya. Except Ghost hasn't seen My Hero Academia. He's seen Black Clover where Briner voices Luck. Of course, this was my chance to force him to watch MHA. Ghost enjoyed it quite a bit. We already designed Marshal to look like what he does, but it was his idea to make the healing light emitted by Marshal to make him look a bit more like Midoriya. Such a fanboy.


	13. Plus Ultra

In the yacht lair, the boat was rocking as the kids tossed and turned. Strucker was standing from the safety of his smaller fishing boat next to the yacht. Metal bent and strained as he roared with anger. He then felt a tap on his shoulder. 

“Hello there.” Wolverine punched him directly in the face. Laura made sure to keep her claws retracted. She then brought her foot down next to her opponent’s neck. Strucker could see the adamantium blade appear. “Now, tell me your name, your friends, and their positions.”

* * *

“Exile,” are you okay?” Clove drew his sword in case he needed to defend against the enemies surrounding him.

“He broke my shin. How do you think I’m doing?” Exile grunted.

“I’m calling a retreat,” said Clove, “There is no chance we can win now.”

“We still have a chance. Sepulcher was their primary reinforcement in this location. We still have a few minutes before the others --” Lions roared as villains took aim for the pack of wild animals headed right for them. 

Chandra Rao of the Tetrarchy has arrived. “Geez, show off why don’t you?”

“You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law.” Guadalupe merely had to touch the ground and all sorts of plants arrived. Vines wrapped around villains and bamboo cages boxed in so many.

Strips of Lao’s flesh flew off his body like string and touched each villain. The villains turned into statues with a single touch from the shapeshifter. “And we’re just wave one, I guess two if you count Sepulcher. Wave three should be here in three … two … one … ”

Monsters steadily retreated towards Clove as lightning rained down. It’s targeted. This could only mean Storm is here. “Storm, Mistress of the Elements, commands you to stand down!”

More heroes arrived: Captain Marvel, Spider-Man, Sunspot, Sunfire, Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, Wasp, Spectrum, Blue Marvel, Black Panther, and more appeared.

“Sorry we’re late. We got into a sticky situation in the volcano zone.” Spider-Man swung past them as he began webbing up assorted thugs. Ice spikes formed around Clove once more. 

“It’s over for now,” Clove relented, “Let’s get out of here.” As a shade of darkness appeared over the pair, they simply disappeared.

“Marshal,” said Reed.

“All of you need to be healed,” said Marshal, “You won’t die of internal bleeding or your fluids bleeding into each other, but you need help.”

“When you healed us before, it was almost instant,” Franklin said.

“Healing two or three people is easy. There’s eleven of you with splinted bones and internal bleeding,” said Marshal, “You need healing.”

One of the healers had gotten into the center of the destroyed mall. “Everyone!” he barked, “Injured villains to my left, injured heroes and students to my right! The healers will treat all of them. Bring the acupuncture cuffs for the villains!”

“You should go,” said Marshal to his crowd, “I’m good, but Virgil is much better.”

_ Those of us who were injured left for the healers. Those who weren’t were told to meet up back at the main building at Camp Hammond. Everyone’s parents were there to greet them. I remember seeing Theo’s rush to grab him and embarrass him by their show of affection. Coco and Beatrice were speaking completely in Chinese. Maggie was picked up by Captain Britain himself. Parents were intermingling, some talking about the incident, others visiting with celebrities. _

“I am Sepulcher, your children address me as Master Pham. Although I was not responsible for today’s exam, Your children are my responsibility as their master. I will share with you the details of the investigation so far. If any of you or your children feel uncomfortable, please leave now.” Marshal proceeded to narrate over footage of the incident. 

“It’s good you decided to be so open with us,” said Captain Britain.

“So open?” said Coco’s mother, “My son was nearly killed by a monster. What measures are going to be taken to prevent this from happening again?”

“First, we’re changing all the locks,” said Marshal, “We want your children’s port keys. Everyone will be disabled, inventoried, and then recycled. Then, we weed out the loose ends with SHIELD and Internal Affairs.” Behind Marshal were three teenagers in rice hats.

The center one stepped forward. “My name is Dai Li. I will be heading the investigation for the side of the Initiative. SHIELD is also investigating. Rest assured, we will leave no stone unturned.”

* * *

In a vineyard, a woman and her six daughters were playing cards. A portal then opened in the middle. Clove fell forward with Strucker and Exile catching him. He was breathing heavily, on the verge of passing out and dying on the floor. After the pair let him down gently, a woman rushed over to Clove’s side. Clove’s own sisters loomed over and watched him.

“What happened?” she demanded as she felt his forehead for this temperature. 

“Sorry, Black Swan,” said Strucker, “The mission went poorly. The kids were stronger than we thought and the Fantastic Four --”

“I meant to him. What exactly happened to my son?” She didn’t turn away from her son at all. 

“I couldn’t warp away from the Sleeping Realm since I was still affected by some kind of venom,” said Exile, “Clove managed to get me, Strucker, and a handful of other servants away.”

“The Aberrant,” said Strucker, “The Aberrant is lost.”

“WHAT?” roared out another voice. This came from someone draped from head to toe in a black coat. “How? That Aberrant was designed to pick a fight with the Avengers. Even the likes of Captain Marvel would struggle against our creation. There’s no way --”

“That Sepulcher was just so strong,” Clove huffed, “Even with intelligence of his former life, the Aberrant was no match.”

“The Aberrant can think?” said the mysterious stranger, “That’s a new development. We haven’t seen that since … this is the first time this ever happened. And Sepulcher … perhaps we underestimated him.”

“That’s not a good thing,” Exile pointed out, “If that thing can think, then he’ll be able to tell them our plans. Sepulcher didn’t kill it.”

“Those kids were no slouches either,” said Clove, “They damaged the Aberrant enough for its healing factor to kick in. That Franklin kid.” The ground beneath Clove began to freeze. “He fought me and could have won if he had a little more skill. He’s strong. I’ll give him that. If he polishes his power, it’s game over for us and our plans.”

“I’ll need to discuss this with the rest of the Order of the Mantle,” said the mysterious stranger, “I think we need to redo our strategy if we’re to break the heroes. We didn’t think young heroes would be an issue, but if they are this strong with this kind of backing, we’ll need to rethink our strategy.”

“We did it your way,” Clove said to Strucker, “Now, we’ll do things my way.”

* * *

In Rachel’s room, the pair were getting ready for bed. Franklin was already in bed as Rachel crawled in. 

“Today was crazy,” she yawned.

“You can say that again,” Franklin yawned back.

“I can’t believe it.”

“The villain attack? I guess we should get used to them, heroes after all. I just didn’t expect one to be during a test in Camp Hammond of all places.”

“Yes, but that Master Pham is a big  _ My Hero Academia _ fan,” Rachel laughed, “Like, I should have known his hardcase attitude was some imitation of Aizawa. Oh, the lines. I can’t believe he quoted it while pounding that monster guy.”

“Uh, what’s  _ My Hero Academia _ again?” Rachel only gave him a look that said ‘have you been living under a rock?’ “I’m being serious.”

“Have I never brought it up?” Franklin nodded his head. “Okay, here’s what’s going to happen: tomorrow, we’re going to watch the first season and then get into the memes. Dub or sub?”

“Dub … I guess.”

“Plus Ultra!”

“What?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ghost's notes:
> 
> So ends this journey. It's been fun, but I think the both of us will write more in the future. We just want to see feedback.
> 
> Dark wrote about how he introduced me to MHA and yes, it's much better than my original vision. Don't worry. I won't totally plagiarize it. That would be boring. I know how this story starts and ends, but what's in between needs outlining. We've already written 90% of the worldbuilding. We're not gonna let it go to waste.
> 
> As for this chapter, the Black Swan you see isn't exactly the Black Swan you know in the comics. There was an organization of them. This one was just one of those thrusted to this Earth ... which isn't connected to the Marvel Multiverse in a conventional way.


End file.
